Plattsburg Public School Newsletter

Thursday, 26th August 2021

Water Safety Education (K-6) (postponed)

Wednesday 1st Thursday 2nd September 2021

Father's Day Stall Online (order at link in this newsletter)

Friday, 3rd September 2021

Father's Day Breakfast (postponed)

Tuesday, 7th September 2021

School Photos

Friday, 10th September 2021

Refugee Awareness Day

Wednesday, 15th September 2021

Whole School Performance (postponed)

Latest COVID-19 Information from the Department of Education and NSW Health for parents can be found at:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19

The Premier announced this week that the stay-at-home orders have been extended to include Regional NSW resulting in the entire state of New South Wales being under stay at home restrictions. These restrictions are in place until 12:00 am Sunday 22nd August.

This means if you are working from home, and your child is able to be educated from home, please keep them at home to minimise movement in the community.

Our school will be open with minimal supervision to support those students who cannot be educated from home, for example if their parent or carer is an essential worker. All students and families will be supported with learning from home materials and resources provided by your teacher.

Find resources to help you and your child learn from home at education.nsw.gov.au/parents-learning-at-home and download the NSW school updates app onto your phone to receive the latest updates.

Our children and young people have grown up with digital technology and it is woven into their lives. During COVID -19 many young people are using digital technology more often to learn and to socialise.

Supporting children and young people to use technology in a safe, respectful and responsible manner allows for more active online learning that can increase student engagement and participation. It also supports access to a broader range of content and learning resources that can supplement students’ learning experiences.

Being safe online is a shared responsibility for students, teachers, parents, carers and the broader community.

It is important that families can communicate with their children about the how to use digital technology in safe, responsible and respectful ways. 

Here are some key reminders for children and young people of how to stay safe online:

• Protect personal information, including name, address, school, email address, telephone number, pictures and other personal details.
• Never share user names or passwords and only use your own
• Ask a teacher or other responsible adult for help if anyone online asks for personal information, wants to meet or offers money or gifts.
• Let a teacher or other responsible adult know immediately if anything online that is suspicious, harmful or inappropriate.
• Never hack, disable or bypass any hardware or software security, including any virus protection, spam and filter
  
  

Further information can be found at:

• Digital Citizenship website: https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/
• Esafety Commissioner: https://www.esafety.gov.au/
  
  

The department’s Student use of digital devices and online service policy supports schools to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks of digital environments, and prepare students for life beyond school.

As learning from home progresses, teachers will commence connecting regularly with your children via Zoom. The attached information will assist your children to utilise the Zoom platform for connecting and  communicating with their teachers and classmates. Parents can assist their child to optimise their Zoom meeting by ensuring they do the following:

● Sit in a well-lit and quiet place. Avoid having a light source such as a window directly behind you.

● If there is a lot of background noise, a headset/mic will be best to use if you have one.

● Make sure your microphone is muted when not talking.

● Be yourself and respect others.

● Use the 'raise your hand' feature if wanting to ask a question live.

Our Year 6 cohort visited Callaghan College Wallsend Campus on Wednesday 4th August 2021. Our students participated in a range of art, music, drama, mathematics, Japanese and English taster lessons, across the campus. Students also participated in range of STEM and teamwork challenges. Some of students visited the canteen and sampled Wednesday’s nachos special! I hear the nachos were delicious! Well done to all of our future Callaghan College Wallsend students, your behaviour and participation was excellent.

On a warm winter’s morning, 24 of Plattsy’s future Olympians made their way to the Glendale Athletics Centre to compete in the Crossroads Zone Athletics Carnival.

For some of our younger students, this was the first time they had represented the school in any sporting event. For others, they were experts in showing off Plattsy’s famous maroon and gold. As the socially-distanced crowds rolled in, excitement grew in the air.

Races began with maroon and gold blurs zipping around the track! The only thing more exciting than the action on the track was the cheering coming from the Plattsy cheer squad. Every student supported each other and continued to encourage each other. There’s no doubt this helped many students achieve new personal bests and continue putting in that extra ounce of effort.

As the day drew to a close, Plattsy had a number of students who would be racing in their respective finals. A big congratulations to the following students who made their finals; Sienna (100m/200m), Cooper (100m/200m), Hayley (100m/200m), Navid (100m/200m) and Chelsea (100m).

The results were as follows;

Sienna – 6th (100m), 7th (200m)

Chelsea – 4th (100m)

Navid – 4th (100m), 3rd (200m), 3rd (800m)

Hayley – 7th (100m), 2nd (200m)

Cooper – 1st (100m), 1st (200m), 1st (800m), 1st (Long Jump), 2nd (High Jump)

Cooper was also named the 11 Year Boys Zone Champion!

A massive congratulations to all the students who attended from Plattsy as well as Mrs Stokes for helping manage the team to ensure every student made their event.

Who knows, maybe we’ll see some of our athletes competing in Brisbane 2032!

Mr Dimmers