Term 3 - Week 2, 2021

Principal's Message

Dear Parents,

I thank all the parents who made the time to meet with teachers this week for Parent Teacher Interviews. These were valuable meetings for us to discuss the progress of students. I know that these meetings had to take place via Zoom or over the phone, however I am appreciative of the time taken to ensure these meetings were held. My thanks also go to the teachers for being prepared for these meetings and for their early starts and late finishes to ensure that these conversations about learning could happen.

On Monday, Stage 3 led our Prayer Assembly. This was shared with parents via Zoom. A Zoom link will be sent out each Monday as an invitation for parents to view our assembly. Next week, Stage 1 students are leading a Learning Assembly on Monday 26th July at 2:45pm. I invite parents to join us for this via Zoom to hear about the things Stage 1 have been learning about recently.

Below is a prayer that Stage 3 shared with students during their assembly:

Holy Spirit, be with me today.

Be my teacher, my guide, my counsellor, my friend.

Fill me with your gifts, especially the gifts of wisdom, discernment, knowledge, understanding, compassion, love and awe in God’s presence. 

In all that I think, say and do, let it be in accordance with your most holy and perfect will.

I ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen

Finally, this week we conducted our first whole school Learning Walk and Talk. These walks ask students the following 5 questions:

• What are you learning? Why?
• How are you going?
• How do you know?
• How can you improve?
• Where do you go for help?

Next week, our staff are going to review the student responses to Learning Walk and Talk. Their responses tell us a lot of valuable information regarding how clear we are as teachers about what is being studied. Their responses also tell us how students think they are progressing and if they know their next steps. The ultimate goal of these learning walks is for students to become independent, self-reflective learners. I look forward to sharing more about this work in the coming weeks.

Regards,

Nathan Trezise

Principal  

Road Safety Information for Parents

School Zone Information

The speed limit for travelling into our school for drop off and pick up of students is 40km/hour. Please watch the clip below to learn more about 40km/hour zones around our school and when they are enforceable.

Visitor Parking

Please enter and exit the car park with extreme caution and care. Also be aware of children and parents walking to cars already parked. Children being picked up will wait near the school entrance. Parents/guardians are asked to walk over and collect their children from the waiting area and not call children down to their cars. No vehicle is to enter the school playground without permission from the principal or senior teacher. Please note that no child is to be unsupervised in the car park. When parking for after-school pick-up, the first car in should park rear to the old cement wall nearest the school. Other cars should then fill the back row (rear to wall) before beginning to fill the front row. If the car park is full, parents can drive around into the pick-up and drop-off area and wait for their child to come out. This is not an overtaking area; parents will need to wait until the car in front of them has moved off before they move on.

Bikes, Skateboards & Scooters

Children riding to school must remember that wearing a helmet is compulsory and an adult must accompany younger students as required by law. Children must dismount and walk their bikes or scooters into and out of the school car park. Bikes are to be stored in the bike rack. Students who choose to ride to school must complete the bike checklist stated in our Road Safety policy. This is a joint task undertaken with parents to ensure student safety.

For further infomation please review our school website on the address listed below.

Craft Request

Mrs Darby is asking for donations of clean, empty plastic 1-litre soft drink or cordial bottles for art and craft. Please drop the bottles off at the front office.

Weekly Awards

This week's class awards went to:

Hunter G - for trying hard to do his best writing and for sharing information about echidnas.

Ryan B - for being a good helper and working hard to complete all tasks.

Ethan Mi - for working hard in spelling to learn and sound out your words. Keep it up!

Eden G - for creating and describing many number patterns, and sharing these with others. 

Ruby F - for great participation in our class discussions when breaking down our learning intention.

Kyrin M - for a great attitude towards learning and helping others in the school. Keep it up!

Lacey P - for making valuable contributions to in-class discussions to demonstrate your understanding of authors' purpose and intent.

Cooper C - for making good learning choices and being able to divide numbers into smaller portions to work out ratios.

Gardening Group News

In gardening group we have been transplanting our strawberries. We have come to the conclusion that it isn't the birds or the slugs, or even little children who are eating all our strawberries before we can get them, although obviously children do account for some strawberry consumption! We now think it is our resident blue tongue lizard. We definitely do not want to harm the lizard or get rid of it, so we have engineered a solution. We have decided to hang the strawberries up! Here is the result of a couple of lunchtime gardening sessions (see picture below), and we have left some strawberry plants in the garden for the lizard as well.

As you can see our little orange tree is very happy and heavy with fruit. 

The other photo shows one of our garden beds full of parsley now too! That has all self-sown itself. Looks like it'll be orange juice and tabouleh all round!

2021 Book Week & Book Fair

Our 2021 Book Fair will be held in Week 7 of this term, from Monday 23 August to Friday 27 August. This is always a fun week, with visits to our local library planned on Tuesday 24 August and a Book Character dress-up parade on Thursday 26 August (COVID restrictions permitting). 

We would love to have one or two parents to help out with the organisation of the Book Fair (again, COVID restriction permitting). This will entail helping set up the Book Fair in the library and assisting with promoting Book Fair & Book Week. If you are interested in volunteering for this, please contact Cathy at the school.

Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal

We are gathering donations again this year for our Winter Appeal. Please help us if you can. We need toiletries (soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, moisturizer, deodorant, toothbrushes), scarves, beanies, blankets, jumpers, socks etc. Whatever you have to spare would make a real difference to someone in need.

Thank you for your generous support.

The Mini Vinnies Group

New School Facebook!

We have launched our new school Facebook page! It has been wonderful to be able to share the good news of our school with our families and community. 

Mathematics Games Video Tutorials

Each week, students are encouraged to play some mathematics games at home to help support their learning at school. Our classroom teachers take students through the homework tasks and to assist families to play at home, we are including a video tutorial in the newsletter. 

Kindergarten - Mathematics Games (see video below)

Stage 1 - Mathematics Games (see video below)

Number Target

Each player throws 5 bean bags onto the target. Work out the total score for each player and write. Repeat several times and work out the total score for each player. 

Extension: change numbers on target.

Easier: throw just two or three each time.

Stage 2 - Mathematics Games (see video below)

Grow the Rows

You will need:

• A 6-sided die

• Counters 

Each player rolls a 6-sided die and makes a row with this many items (e.g. 4). Next they each roll their die again and imagine making an array with this new number of rows (e.g. 6 rows of 4). Next each player predicts the total number of items needed to make the array and proves the solution to their partner. If they get it right, the player gets a point. First to 5 points wins!

Stage 3 - Mathematics Games (see video below)

Make a prediction as to how many groups of nine there are in a 3-digit number. I create a 3-digit number using cards,  eg: 375. I first predict my answer. Here I need to think about my tens. I know there are 37 lots of ten so there would be more than 37 lots of nine. I may make a prediction eg: 41. Then I will use the short division method to see how close my prediction was.

Connect and Reflect -Parent Gathering

Below is the flyer for the upcoming Parent Gatherings with registration details. All parents and carers are warmly invited to attend one of these informative and engaging gatherings. Due to social distancing, numbers will be restricted. We encourage parents to register early.

2021 Premier's Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely. The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 9, in government, independent, Catholic and home schools. You must read a certain number of books to complete the Challenge. The Challenge closes for students on Friday August 20, 2021.

Congratulations to the following students, who have completed this year's Premier's Reading Challenge:

Ryan B, Rory O, Ruby M, Hayley M, Chloe T, Jinky W, Eden G, Zoe B, Clay B, Rylan K, Ryleigh M.

Parent Assembly Recruitment

Library Day - Wednesday

Library day for all students is Wednesday - please make sure your child brings in his or her cloth library bag on this day. Each student may borrow four books per week. 

Canteen

Thank you to this week's canteen volunteers, who are Amii Francis, Nicola Beckett & Clare Beckett. If anyone is available to volunteer in our canteen one or more Fridays per term, please contact our canteen co-ordinator Alicia on 0488 280683. If we have no volunteers available we will have to cancel canteen for that week.

A reminder to place your canteen order before Thursday night each week.

Please note - if you top up your canteen account via bank transfer, the funds will take a week to clear so you will not be able to order canteen immediately. 

Please send your lunch wallets into school and we will keep them here.

School Bus Travel

Applications for student travel can now be made online. Apply here 

School Drive Subsidy

The School Drive Subsidy is available for eligible school students where there is no public transport available for all or part of the journey. If you have to drive your child more than 1.6km to a school bus stop, you may be eligible for this subsidy – go to the link below to apply. 

Instrumental Music With Hazel

We have music tutor available to teach instrumental music through private tuition. Hazel Buchanan is interested in working with our students. Hazel can teach flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion and bass guitar.

The school owns a flute and a clarinet, which are available for families to borrow long-term at no cost. The payments for lessons are billed each term and paid directly to Hazel. An Essential Element Band Book will be supplied by the school too.

Students wishing to learn these instruments can do so in individual lessons or in small groups depending on the instrument chosen. It is hoped that one day, we can start a small ensemble or band for instrumental students to play together. 

If you are interested in taking up this opportunity, please contact Hazel directly on 0458 572 525.

Lessons will take place on Fridays. 

Term 3 School Fees

Term 3 school fee statements will be sent home next week. 

Several payment methods are available; 

• Regular direct deposit payments (see suggested amounts below).
• Lump sum direct deposit
• Cash
• Cheque

1 student - Term 3 - $276.00

       $46.16 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $23.08 per week (x 50 weeks)

2 students - Term 3 - $483.00

       $81.28 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $40.64 per week (x 50 weeks)

3 or more students  - Term 3 – $621.00

       $105.36 per fortnight (x 25 fortnights)

       $52.68 per week (x 50 weeks)

If you would like to arrange a regular direct debit payment from your Bananacoast Credit Union account into the school’s account, the BCU Credit Union in Dorrigo will organize this for you.

When using Internet banking, please use your child’s surname as a reference.

Bananacoast Community Credit Union   BSB no. 533-000

Account no. 3282 0430                 Name: Mt St John’s Primary School

School Fee Relief for familes impacted by the March floods

Due to the financial strain the March 2021 flooding may have had on some families, the Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Ltd has announced they will waive 2021 school fees for recipients of any Australian Government financial assistance in relation to the March 2021 floods, including either the:

• Disaster Recovery Payment (property damage)
• Disaster Recovery Allowance (loss of income)

If you would like to apply for a fee waiver for 2021, please contact the school, providing correspondence from Centrelink demonstrating receipt of disaster recovery payment or allowance.

GLUE

GLUE: "God Loves Us Eternally" (formerly GFS) is on each Wednesday from 3-5pm at the Anglican Hall. Afternoon tea, games, fun worship and craft. All primary kids welcome, as are newcomers. For more info, ring Gwenneth on 6657 2135. COVID-safe practices will apply.

Messy Church

After-School Lego @ Dorrigo Library

Nutrition Snippet