I am excited to formally be taking on the role as Relieving Principal while Mrs Allen is on leave. I look forward to meeting the Randwick PS community whether it be through P&C meetings, school events or during morning and afternoon pickup. I have already been made to feel so welcome and cannot wait to get involved in the students’ learning in the classroom and playground.

Trolls

Year 6 have all worked so hard to bring their performance of Trolls to life this week. Congratulations to the students and teachers who should be commended on their creativity and teamwork displayed on and off stage. The sheer enjoyment was evident on the faces of students, teachers, and audience alike.  We are now looking forward to the Year 2 performances of The Lion King on August 3 and 5 (Week 4 next term).  Multiple performances must be conducted to comply with the social distancing requirements. 

COVID-19

In light of recent local COVID-19 cases please continue to be very vigilant about social distancing and personal hygiene. Staff and students can continue to attend school to work and learn, except for the following reasons:

·         They must remain at home if they are unwell, even with the mildest of symptoms. If they are unwell they must receive a negative COVID test and be symptom free before returning to school.

·         If they have been to a venue of concern they must comply with the self-isolation and testing requirements as directed by the NSW Health Department. If you attended any of the hot-spot venues identified please contact NSW Health immediately on 1800 943 553.

·         It is important that schools and families continue to follow the current COVID-19 guidelines. In particular it is important to highlight the following:

·         Students should not attend school if unwell, even with mild symptoms of COVID-19. Any person with any COVID-19 symptoms should be sent home and should not return until they have received a negative test result and are symptom-free. In circumstances where children have other medical reasons for recurrent symptoms a letter from their GP is sufficient to negate the requirement for a negative test.

·         Anyone who is unwell with COVID-19 symptoms is strongly encouraged to get tested and self-isolate until a negative result is received.

·         All visitors to a school site must be well and symptom free, comply with sign-in arrangements, and the 1.5m physical distancing requirements.

·         Visitors to schools should maintain 1.5m distance from other people where practicable. Avoid congestion of groups of visitors in specific areas where possible.

·         All visitors to a school site must comply with sign-in arrangements. This includes acknowledging that they will comply with the COVID-19 requirements for visitors, contractors and service providers each time they visit. Visitors must also check in using the Service NSW QR code. Parents and carers who are dropping off or picking up students do not need to sign in or use the Service NSW QR code.

Parent Volunteers

We are still seeking some support from parents who would be interested in assisting our Kindergarten and Year 1 classes with some additional Literacy support in Term 3 and early Term 4. Parents would be required to commit to a full day for all of Term 3 and for the first five weeks of Term 4 – 15 weeks in total.  Parents would be working with two classes each day and consistency is important.

The additional support would include listening to students read daily as well as working with students on developing their sight word recognition skills.

A training session will be provided in Week 1 of next term with the program beginning during Week 2.

All volunteers will require a full Working with Children Check from Service NSW and will need to complete all DOE employment forms.  In accordance with school protocols, successful applicants would not be placed with their own child’s class.

If interested, please email trent.gardiner@det.nsw.edu.au to register and advise your preferred day/days of availability during this period, by Friday 18 June.

Attendance

Research highlights a clear correlation between student attendance and the achievement of quality academic, socio-economic and health outcomes. This research tells us that students with an attendance rate below 90% are educationally at risk. Above 95% is our expected student attendance. Thank you parents and carers for your support in ensuring that our students attend school unless they are sick.

School Houses

The students have been working extremely hard to accumulate house points this term. The first semester of our new 6 School Houses has been wonderful!

Next Thursday the winning House for Term 2 will be announced, with the winning house participating in a special House Disco to congratulate them on their hard work and effort this term. The students in grades 2-6 met this week to workshop future ideas and events that can enhance our School House system so that students feel like they are connected and belong.

Nationally Consistent Collection of data (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019). Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

year of schooling

category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory, or social/emotional

level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools

consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools

develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

Further information regarding NCCD is included in the ‘Parent Fact Sheet’. This process will be completed early in Term 3.

Morning Tea for Aboriginal Parents and Grandparents

On Thursday July 22 (Week 2, Term 3) there will be a morning tea for the parents and grandparents of Aboriginal students at Randwick Public School. We hope this will be a termly event where students, teachers, parents and grandparents can connect with one another for a chat, coffee and cake. An event reminder will be sent to you via SeeSaw next term and students will be creating beautiful invitation cards to give to you. The morning tea will be from 8:45-9:30am.

Enjoy the holidays!

Thank you to everyone for such a wonderful and successful term. I wish you all a safe and restful break and look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 13th July when we return to school for Term 2. Please remember that Monday 12th July is a Staff Development Day.

Trent Gardiner
Relieving Principal

Thursday 15th July, as part of our school's 'Reconciliation Action Plan', the Year 3 students brainstormed ideas about wanting improved, visible Indigenous signage around our school.  As a result, all students are being asked to come to school on Thursday 15th July dressed in the traditional colours of the Aboriginal flag,  RED, YELLOW and BLACK. 

A gold coin donation will be collected on the day in order to raise funds to implement the students' ideas.

How long have you been teaching?  Where and for how long?

I have been teaching for two terms. One term teaching casually at Randwick, Clovelly, Maroubra Bay, Daceyville and Woollahra Public schools as well as Waverley College Junior School. My second term of teaching has been at Randwick with 4O and I’m relishing the opportunity to teach my own class.

What do you like about Randwick Public School? 

Randwick is a wonderfully welcoming and engaging school. I appreciate the supportive and friendly colleagues, wonderful co-curricular programs and the diversity and character of the students.

What is your favourite thing to do?

My perfect day would involve boxing in the morning followed by some gardening and beach time (Bronte or Clovelly), then catching up with friends for dinner and drinks somewhere local.

What have you read recently?

The Dog’s that made Australia by Guy Hull. A very interesting book which begins with the introduction of the dingo thousands of years ago and follows the development of dogs bred to serve a range of purposes throughout the years. I am also currently re-reading a fantasy series called the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I consider this 10-book series the high watermark of fantasy literature.

What is your favourite sports team?

The mighty South Sydney Rabbitohs!!

What is your favourite food?

When I can get my hands on it, I love to eat sustainably harvested wild game (Christmas venison pie is my specialty) but more typically I love any style of Italian cuisine.

Hello! My name is Afrin, and I am a Koala.  My class is 6BR and I love science and art.  I raise the flags with my close friends Annabel and Mirabelle every Friday.  I joined this wonderful school community just last year, and I look forward to meeting you! 

My name is Clementine and I’m a Turtle.  I am in 6BR as well.  I love drama and reading. I joined Randwick Public School in kindergarten and have been going here ever since.  I love it RPS! 

The Year 6 have prepared a Trolls performance to present to the school, along with the parents and teachers.  We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped us in making this enjoyable and fun play. We couldn’t have done it without our teachers Mr Bendersky, Mr Lavender, Mr Pozarik, Ms Laurendet and Mrs Fredericks and our backstage helpers Audrey, Freya and Eili.

As you all probably know, we have school houses now.  The houses are Australian animals including the Koalas, Turtles, Whales, Wombats, Kookaburras and the Platypuses.  The winning house at the end of each term will get a prize, for example, last term, the Wombats won and got to have a fun session of playing games with their house. This term, the prize will be a Disco for the winning house! They will get to choose the music and have a fun time dancing.

The Spelling Bee is a competition where students try to spell out words correctly, but get out if they spell it wrong. The speaker says the word, then to spell it out, you say the word, spell it then say the word to lock it in. Each class will have their own spelling bee to find an ultimate winner. The winners from each class will have a whole school spelling bee in Week 10.  Good luck!

Week 10 is a very special week as Randwick Public School as will be celebrating NAIDOC Week.  NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.  This is a very important week because it celebrates the achievements and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This week actually takes place during the holidays so RPS is celebrating a little earlier instead. 

Week 10 is the last week in Term 2!  This term has been flying by. We’ve had Cross Country and Year 4 and 6’s performances. We hope you all have an amazing, safe happy holiday and have lots of fun.  We will see you in Term 3!

Afrin and Clem

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