Dear parents,

I can’t believe that we only have just over two weeks left in Term 1! There has been so much happening, with still more to come, that the time has just flown by.

Attendance

It is vitally important that all children are at school as often as possible. When children are at school, they have more chance of improving their learning, they develop skills in interacting with other children and adults and they have opportunities to be involved in a variety of extra-curricula activities that are on offer.

Unfortunately, students get sick from time to time at which point it is better for them to stay at home to get better. When this happens, it is incredibly important that the school is provided with a reason for the absence so that rolls can be marked accurately. There are a number of ways to inform the school – note sent in the day of return clearly stating the reason for the absence; Skoolbag Absent form completed; phone call to the front office.

It is a legal requirement that the school rolls are completed accurately, including recording student absences and the reason for the absence. Your help with this is very much appreciated.

Harmony Day

On Thursday this week, the children and staff will celebrate Harmony Day by wearing something orange. It is not a mufti day as such, but the opportunity for everyone to promote an understanding of social cohesion and racial harmony. There is no cost for this to the children.

Principal’s Morning Tea

This week I had the good fortune to spend time with some lovely children from Years 3 to 6 at the Principal’s Morning Tea. As you may be aware, this is an invitation event where students are selected by their teachers to attend. We had a lovely morning tea sitting out in front of the main building and I am very much looking forward to the Kindergarten to Year 2 students turn coming up next week.

COVID update

Thank you to everyone for supporting our COVID guidelines. We really appreciate your support and understanding as we try continuing on as normally as possible. The Department of Education has adjusted the regulations slightly around parents attending sporting events. One parent from each family is able to attend sporting events eg. PSSA, and they must sign in at the indoor or outdoor venue.

We have been holding assemblies where there have not been class items and we will continue to do this for the remainder of this term. Hopefully we can get back to putting on class items later this year and having some parents attend to support the children.

Photo Day

On Thursday 25 March, all students will have their class photo and individual photos taken by The School Photographer. Your child should have brought home an envelope for this which is to be returned on the day of the photos. Those families who would like a sibling photo need to pick up an envelope from the front office and return it on photo day. This can be done by sending your eldest child to the office to pick one up or calling the office so that we can organise for your child to get it.

Upcoming events

Harmony Day – Thursday 18 March

Easter Raffle tickets sent out – Friday 19 March

Principal’s Morning Tea K-2 – Tuesday 23 March

Cross Country Years 3 to 6 – Wednesday 24 March

Photo Day – Thursday 25 March

Gold and Silver Assemblies – Monday 29 March

Easter Hat Parade K-2 and Easter Raffle Draw – Tuesday 30 March

Finally, I will be taking long service leave from Tuesday 30 March until Thursday 1 April but I will be back ready to go after the holidays for Term 2.

Have a great week!

Mrs Thompson

Principal

The latest information about the COVID guidelines can be found on the Department’s website: https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families#COVID0

 To following key points are most pertinent for our school:

• All teachers, support staff and parents must maintain physical distance from each other (1.5m).
• Parents and carers for Preschool, Kindergarten and Years 1, 2 and 7 students will be allowed on the school site to drop off their children at their classes on the first few days of schools provided they follow physical distancing and hygiene measures implemented by the school and the department. Parents and carer may also enter the school to pick up students for the first few days based on each school arrangements for these year groups.
• P&C meetings can be held after school hours with a COVID-19 Safety Plan. Gatherings are limited to 30 people indoors and 50 people outdoors for schools within Greater Sydney

• Parents and carers are not allowed on school sites or at off-site school events held during school hours except for the following purposes only:

 - Essential parent and carer meetings with teachers and/or school executives, with a scheduled appointment. This includes scheduled meetings with parents and carers of prospective students.

- Parents and carers who attend a school administration building or another defined location for the purpose of picking up their child if they are unwell or where they have been asked to arrange for a COVID-19 test after their child has displayed flu-like symptoms while at school.

- Parents and carers who need to be on-site for canteen and uniform shop duties or to collect or purchase uniforms.

- Parents and carers can attend parent orientation meetings and ‘meet the teacher’ meetings with school staff for all year/stage groups. Meetings should be limited to 1 hour where possible. A COVID-19 Safety Plan must be in place.

It can seem confusing when we try to navigate the complexities of COVID restrictions, and parents may well ask why there are differences amongst schools and other venues. The following information may be of assistance:

COVID Safety Plans

Our COVID safety plan must outline how we are managing the wellbeing, physical distancing and hygiene measures for our staff and visitors. If our school does not feel that we can adequately mitigate for risk, then that event cannot proceed, even if it is permissible under the Department’s guidelines. This was, for example, the case for our meet the parent event. In a large school such as ours, with many vulnerable staff onsite, a stage or grade-based meeting of staff and parents posed an unacceptable risk. The way the school managed this was to provide contact between parent and teacher by phone without compromising their safety.

External Venues versus Department Guidelines

External venues, such as local pools, cinemas and sports grounds, must have their own COVID safety plan. When our school uses these venues we must abide by the venue’s COVID plan; however, we must also abide by the Department’s COVID guidelines. If, for example, the venue allows parents to be onsite, but the Department’s guidelines do not permit this, we cannot allow parents to attend.

Please be assured that we are all looking forward to a time where we can return to some semblance of normality. Meanwhile, our school is putting the children at the centre of our decision-making. While it is disappointing for parents to be missing out on school events and activities, this year our children are able to access all of the events and activities they missed out on last year. We don’t want that to change!

Each year, students in Years 3 and 5 complete NAPLAN tests to provide a snapshot of where the students are up to in their learning. These tests will be held during the period from Monday May 10 to Friday 21 May.

This year the students will be completing most of the tests online using school laptops. The only exception to this will be the Year 3 Writing test which will be done on paper.

The students will be sitting a practice test next week so that they can become familiar with test conditions and using the technology. The Department of Education has set this time so that they can check that their systems can cope with the large numbers of students across the state. The practice test involves one combined test of reading, conventions of language and numeracy that runs for 45 minutes. Year 5 students will also complete a writing test that runs for 42 minutes. Please note that Year 3 students will not be doing a practice writing test on the computer as they will be completing a paper version for the NAPLAN test in May.

There are some students in our school who require adjustments in order to complete these tests. These students are known to their teachers and our Learning Support team. Parents of these children will be contacted and asked to complete a consent form. We are hoping to have this done before the end of this term.

If you would like further information about NAPLAN please contact Mr Bamford at school.

We would like to officially thank the NSW Government for the community grant that provided the funds for our fantastic playground equipment in the grove area. This equipment will provide the children in our community the opportunity to climb and explore in a safe, child-centred environment.

We are sure that the new 2021 Kindergarten students will enjoy spending time utilising this great resource.

Students wear something orange to unite in promoting social cohesion and racial harmony.

All students will have class photos and individual photos taken. Order forms will be sent home on Monday 15 March and returned on photo day.

Siblings photos can be ordered and taken as well.

These notes and all other notes can be found on the school website.

It is a legal requirement for schools to keep accurate rolls. In order to do this we need to receive a note or phone call from parents for student absences, within three days of the absence starting stating the nature of the absence ie. sickness, family business, short leave. The Skoolbag app has an easy to use function that allows you to generate an online note we print off  to give to teachers.

We have been informed by the supplier that Regentville PS school hats are not available for sale until late April. In the meantime, students could wear a blue or dark hat.

If you have some spare time on Monday 29 March to help wrap Easter Raffle prizes, the hardworking P&C fundraising committee could use your help. They will be starting just after 9am and spending a couple of hours wrapping in the hall.

If you are able to help please call the front office and leave your deatils.