Holbrook Public School

Welcome to Week 9! Last week certainly saw Holbrook and its surrounds get their fair share of rain, with local dams, creeks and rivers overflowing and full of abundance. Our school was no exception, with students not having access to the playground for most of the week. It was so wet; we even had yabbies wandering around the school! Well done to all of our students for remaining calm and considerate and showing great tolerance, patience and flexibility throughout the wet weather, even with restricted movement and limited play options.

I have had quite a few of our Kindergarten superstars visit my office with their incredible writing recently. Well done to Miss Hemphill, Mrs de Steiger, Luke, April and Ollie. It is great to see you all thriving!

Please see below a calendar outlining key events and times over the last three weeks of term and at the beginning of 2022. At this stage, we haven’t been provided with Term 1 Guidelines which will guide how we operate next year.

End of Year Calendar for parents

K-6 Presentation Day - I am very much looking forward to this year’s Presentation Day, where our students' outstanding efforts, progress, and achievements will be recognised. As part of the presentation, we will find out who the 2022 Captain, Vice-Captain, Prefects and House Leaders (Captains and Vice-Captains) will be. Announcements will also be made regarding the Commander Holbrook Scholarship and Holbrook Public School public speaking award winners. Please be aware that there are still restrictions on parents attending the school. Whilst the school can invite select guests to perform specific roles for Presentation Day, this is at the school’s discretion, and we have chosen not to take up this option. Last year we weren’t allowed to have any parents or guests on-site, and with over 90 families,  we feel it wouldn’t be appropriate or fair for some to be permitted to attend when the majority would need to miss out. Please know that our ideal scenario would be to have all of you present to celebrate the success of our students as a community. I hope this is the case in 2022.

Key points:

• Date: Tuesday, 14 December
• Time: 10:00 a.m.
• Venue: Holbrook Public School (under the COLA)
• Who: Students and staff only

A Zoom link will be provided for parents/carers. This year, the event must be held outside, so the sound and lighting may be affected.

Year 6 Farewell Dinner - It is excellent that parents/carers will be able to attend the Year 6 Farewell Dinner this year! Many thanks to Sarah King for accommodating our request to host the event at The Ten Mile and Miss Lavis for all her organisation. We understand that at 95% double vaccinated (NSW) or on the 15 December, whichever comes first, restrictions will ease allowing vaccinated and unvaccinated adults to attend hospitality venues. We will follow The Ten Mile's COVID-19 Safety Plan and DoE guidelines. The venue will be reserved for the Holbrook Public School community only, and in line with Department policy, it will be an alcohol-free event.

Key information:

• Date: Wednesday, 15 December
• Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
• Venue: The Ten Mile
• Who: Year 6 students and their parents, and staff

Colour Fun Run Update - A tentative new date for the Colour Fun Run has been booked for Wednesday, 8 December; however, this is dependent on some changes to Intensive Swimming that haven’t been confirmed yet. A sincere thank you to our whole school community for their generous support is in order, as we have now raised nearly $8000. Some of this money has been used to purchase additional resources to make the day extra special, with some funds also going towards our World Vision child.  The remainder, and high majority of the funds, will go towards the cost of our new fixed playground equipment.

Year 6 Leader’s Lunch - Each year, I take the school leaders (Captain, Vice-Captain and Prefects) out for lunch to thank them for their contribution to the school. Last year, we included the House Leaders due to their significant contribution in providing, cleaning and organising sports equipment each day for our students, which has again been the case in 2021 due to COVID-19. This year, all Year 6 students will be involved in the Leader’s Lunch to recognise the broad range of leadership roles they undertake around the school, including organising and running assemblies, organising the table tennis and pool tables each day, looking after the fish and their environment, coordinating sports equipment use, opening toilets and bubblers, flags, Acknowledgement of Country, Bus Leaders, roll monitors, sustainability monitors and being outstanding buddies to our Kindergarten students. Year 6 really do have a pivotal leadership role in the school, and they do it very well. This particular Year 6 cohort are also achieving at very high levels, well beyond state and statistically similar school groups in NAPLAN and DoE Check-Ins for reading and numeracy. Well done, Year 6; I know you are all destined for spectacular things in the future! 

Key details:

• Date: Wednesday, 15 December
• Time: 1:00 p.m.
• Venue: School
• Who: The school leaders and I will make pizzas for all Year 6 students. A note will be sent home asap.

• Request: Our little canteen oven will be working hard, so if anyone has a gas pizza oven, they’d be happy to lend us for the day, that would be greatly appreciated!

• Cost: Free

Student Progress Reports - As in Semester 1 2020, flexibility has again been offered to schools for the Semester 2, 2021 reporting period. Due to COVID-19 and the interruption of lockdown and learning from home, our school will provide a two-page modified Semester 2 report to parents/carers. This will include an overall achievement and effort grade for English and mathematics, a general comment, and information on attendance and commitment to learning. We will be using the Sentral learning management system for the first time to produce these reports. Our Semester 2 student progress reports will go home to parents on Monday, 13 December. Should you like to discuss any aspect of your child’s report, please get in touch with the school to arrange an interview with your child’s class teacher on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday (Week 11).

Meet Your Buddy - Last Wednesday was our final transition session for the 15 new Kindergarten students starting at Holbrook Public School in 2022. Our newest enrolments met their Year 5 ‘buddies’ who will help guide and support them through their first year at school.

Nathan Fisher

Principal

Georgie Geddes was recently spotted taking an exciting mode of transport to school for the morning drop off in the school carpark. Given the current wet weather, this might be just what is needed! Thanks to Tony and Geordie for posing!

Our fish pond was flooded with the recent heavy rain, which delivered some unexpected visitors to other parts of our school. We had approximately 20 yabbies take a tour of the school and, in particular, the new garden. Yabbies are adventurous creatures and often follow overflowing water, hoping it takes them to another pocket of water suitable for habitation. They avoided the Currawongs (who enjoy these tasty crustaceans) and were returned to their original home by Mrs Keatings and Miss Reid, our cleaners. While Mrs Slater was taking the yabbies' portraits, she remarked on the cacophony made by our resident frogs. It's great to see that our school has a healthy ecosystem.

Christmas is a time to be caring and sharing and reaching out to people. 

At Holbrook Public School, we believe a kind gesture can go a long way, so we have decided to have a Giving Christmas Tree in our school library this year. 

Our pupils are encouraged to purchase a small gift to leave under the tree for an unknown student of their age. The gift can be wrapped, and a gift tag stating the gender and age of the intended recipient attached. 

The presents will go to children of homeless and underprivileged families in Albury and the Albury/Wodonga Women’s Shelter. 

Gift tags are available from under the tree in the library.

Please ring or email your uniform order through to the office. Payments can be made online by clicking the 'Make a Payment' option on our website or by credit card over the phone. We will then place your order in the front office for collection on Monday's, Wednesdays, and Fridays or give it to your child to take home with them.

With our Google Translation integration, your community can access your newsletter in ANY language. Simply scroll to the bottom of the newsletter preview to give it a try.