24 February 2023

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Kindergarten Meet the Teacher Afternoon

Thanks to the many parents who last week joined us on Thursday 16th February for our Kindergarten Meet the Teacher afternoon. We hope you found it an informative time.

Meet the Teacher Afternoon for Year 1 to Year 6

This week we have held our Meet the Teacher - Parent Information afternoons for Years 1-6 families. There were over 500 meetings booked and most classes had a large number of parents who took the opportunity to discuss some of their child’s learning needs with their teacher, either in person or over the phone.

This was not a time for teachers to give in-depth information on students’ academic performance but a time for teachers and parents to meet, make a connection and for teachers to find out a little more about how they can best cater for your child’s learning needs.

I am hoping that families found this a valuable experience.

Formal parent-teacher interviews will be held at the end of Term 2.

Swimming Carnival

Well done to all our swimmers who competed at school Swimming Carnival held on Tuesday 21st February, at Blacktown Aquatic Centre. It was great to be able to welcome parents and grandparents back as spectators after many years.

We wish the following students every success at the Blacktown Zone Swimming Carnival to be held on Wednesday 8th March.

Mufti Day

Thanks to the many families who supported our mufti/out-of-uniform day on Wednesday. Over $1600 was raised to support the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. This money will go to the International Red Cross to directly provide support in these countries. Thank you for your generosity.

Student Representative Council (SRC) and House Captain Elections

During last week, Year 2 to 6 classes elected their SRC representatives for 2023. While last Friday, our Year 5 and 6 students elected House Captains for this year.

We have made some small changes to the House Captain procedures this year. We will no longer be having both Junior and Senior House Captains, instead we will have House Captains elected only from Year 6, a male and female House Captain for each house.

This change reflects the leadership role that Year 6 students are expected to perform within the school and the changing emphasis overtime of the sport house system.

A special Induction Assembly will be held for these students on Thursday 2nd March. An official invitation has been sent home.

NAPLAN

National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students.

This year NAPLAN has been brought forward from Term 2 to Term 1. A significant change for schools.

All assessments will be completed online, with the exception of Writing for Year 3. This is an enormous undertaking for our school. The assessments will commence Wednesday 15th March.

The plan dates for each assessment are as follows:

I encourage all families with Year 3 and 5 students to please ensure that the students are at school on time on these dates. We intend to have all students sit the assessments while they are fresh in the morning sessions, allowing us to use the middle session to catch-up students who may have been away.

Important Updates:

Mobile phones and communication devices: Please note this correction to previous information-

• Mobile phones and watches are not to be used while at school - this includes before school.

Thank you for your cooperation in this area.

Street Parking around our School

Parents and Caregivers who drive and park to pick-up children in the afternoon, I would ask for your assistance.

I acknowledge that the vast majority of our parents follow the rules and are courteous road users, and I am deeply grateful to all you. Unfortunately, our school’s reputation is being tarnished by those who are not.

Every afternoon, there are parents who completely disregard parking and road rules and the rights of our neighbours.

An Example: On Monday afternoon, a white SUV – most likely a RAV 4, firstly parked across a driveway in Valda Street, blocking access to a disability van. It then parked in the No Stopping zone. The driver allegedly proceeded to abuse the driver of the disability van.

If you know the owner of the SUV, I would be very grateful if you could inform me.

The actions of this driver caused such distress to our neighbour that they have presented to our school office in a highly agitated state. This, in turn, causing significant distress to our office staff.

I then needed to spend over an hour with our neighbours, attempting to defuse the situation.

This is just one of five complaints that the Deputy Principals and I have needed to respond to this week regarding parent parking around our school. Dealing with neighbour complaints and the distress caused by illegal parking of our parents, takes away valuable time and resources that should be being used in our school to improve student opportunities and wellbeing.

Our neighbours’ complaints and concerns are mainly in the following areas:

• Parking across driveways
• Parking in driveways
• Parking in No Stopping and No Parking zones
• Speeding
• Ongoing concerns about students crossing busy roads and in between cars in an unsafe manner

The situation has become so serious, that I am asking families for help.

Please Report Illegal Parking

Please help our school and our community by using the app called ‘Snap Send Solve’ to report illegal parking.

I thank you for your support in this area.

Carpet Replacement Program

The Department of School Assets have identified approximately 15 classrooms around the school including the library that require a carpet replacement. This will cause minimal disruption for some classes over the next two weeks.

Andrew Bowmer- Principal

Newsletter Articles

Cultural Calendar for February & March

Dear Parents,

I endeavour to include as many cultural events as possible, unfortunately I do accidently miss some. If I have missed an important cultural event for your culture or religion please inform me so I can correct it in the coming newsletter. Thanks for your help.

Important Australian Milestones

Andrew Bowmer – Principal

Attendance Matters

Missing a day here or there may not seem like much, but absences add up. Every day matters and we are here to support all students in attending and engaging with their learning every day of the year.

• We are here to support your child in getting the most out of their learning, which starts with them attending school every day.
• If your child cannot be at school because they are sick, have a medical appointment, or other reasons, please inform us immediately of their absence.
• You can contact us on 9622 2449 or via the school app - SZAPP (our preferred option).
• We are also here to help if you need support in getting your child to school. #EveryDayCounts.

Swimming Carnival

On Tuesday the 21st February the swimming carnival for Years 2 to 6 was held at Blacktown Aquatic Centre for competitors only. The students competed in Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly events. Students are commended for their tremendous efforts in each and every event. Students exhibited remarkable sportsmanship and school spirit by cheering one another on in all races. All competitors should be proud of their achievements.

Thanks,

Mr Jesse Wilson

Year 5

Year 5 have settled quickly into life as a Senior at Blacktown South Public School. Not only has the classroom been busy, many year 5 students have already joined extra-curricula groups and have begun trialling for upcoming PSSA Sports. SRC elections have just passed and we congratulate all participants - A great responsibility for our elected students! With the competitors swimming carnival and NAPLAN around the corner it's been a very exciting and busy start to the year. We can't wait to watch Year 5 flourish this year as there's so much more to come!

PBL

Welcome Back!

We are sending out a big welcome back to school from the Blacktown South Public School Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) Team. Term one of 2023 is flying as our busy school prepares for another exciting year of learning.

It has been a wonderful start to this year with a significant improvement to our school’s grounds, OUR NEW TOILET BLOCK! This rebuilt bathroom facility is a wonderful, long awaited, modernised facility for students to use, complete with hand dryers.

Here is what the students think:

‘They are more advanced and modern than the old ones.’ Aakansh
‘They are very fancy!’ Zohair
‘They are really clean.’ Veer
‘We are going to take care of our toilets’ Gursuhavi
‘It’s definitely wonderful to see hand dryers in our toilets.’ Nalan
‘Beautiful! Anyone destroying our toilets should be ashamed.’ William
‘It’s very modern, I love them so much.’ Savithu
‘My friends and I really appreciate them.’ Furaat

Thank you Mr Bowmer 3/4L

Along with learning about behaviour expectations that would be appropriate in the new toilet block, students have been reacquainting themselves with the school expectations worthy of Safe, Respectful Learners. As a specific focus, students have been familiarising themselves with the three movement zones around the school, the Red, Orange and Green Zones. They are learning to move around in these areas sensibly to keep all students safe and respected.

Keep up the good work, Blacktown South Public School! 😊

All the best!
The PBL Team

School Opal Card for Year 3 Students, 2023

Dear Parents,

All students who were in Year 2 in 2022 who still travel on the school bus/rail are required to update their information with Transport NSW, if not already done so, on the website

Please note not all students will be eligible, you must live outside the circle (please see attached radial map) for free travel.

Term passes will be available to ineligible students and must also be applied for online.

Parents whose child/children are ineligible for free travel may apply online stating their reason for needing the pass. This will be reviewed and notification sent to parents by Transport NSW.

Andrew Bowmer
Principal

Changes to Our Parent Payment System (POP)

Making payments to the school for excursions, carnivals etc has now been made even easier!! Please see the attached note for detailed instructions.

P&C Committee / Fund Raiser

Parents & Citizens Committee NEWS:

Our P&C is run by a handful of parent volunteers, our goal is to connect with our school community and raise funds to help our school do things for our children.

Our current fundraising project is raising funds for all weather shelters around the school.

This year with your help we hope to get closer to completing our project.

We would like to thank those that have been purchasing the entertainment book from our website, our P&C gets $14 for every families membership.

On our P&C website we have added the option "P&C contribution", (link below) this is optional but it would be a great help if each family of our school could help with a donation. Thank you.

Please like our P&C/Uniform shop Facebook page for updates.

If you would like to join our volunteer team please contact us at

pc.bsps@outlook.com.au or Renee 0415859158

Fundraising events:

Digital Entertainment book

This fundraiser is available to be purchased all year.

Membership starts from the day of purchase and every family member can use it as long as they have the app with the same login details.

It's an app full of savings on entertainment, dining, travel, activities and much much more.

If you purchase through our link the P&C get a percentage.

Purchase through the link below:

Kind Regards
Your P&C

Uniform Store

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Uniform Shop operating hours:
TUESDAYS and FRIDAYS from 09:15am-10:30am
Or you may purchase from the P&C website at any time and the uniforms will be delivered to the student’s class.

When purchasing uniforms online from our P&C website always remember to put the students name and class in the notes before checkout.

DO NOT PAY FOR UNIFORMS THROUGH THE SCHOOL WEBSITE, only from the P&C website or with an order form that may also be found in paper form in the office. Please find the links below

Our uniform shop stocks from size 2 to adult size in a majority of our school uniform range.

We have a range of accessories to suit our uniform colours:
Scrunchies, headbands, socks, rain coats and Hijabs.

*2nd hand uniforms:
We have a second-hand rack at the uniform shop, prices start from $2.
We ask our parents if they have any uniforms they no longer need to please donate them back to the uniform shop. Parents may leave the items at the uniform shop or in the office.

*Hijabs:
Our uniform shop has school colour hijabs on offer for free to our students. Until stock lasts.

*SALE:
Previous style legionnaire and slouch hats for $10 ONLY!! Until stock lasts.

This year for our new students we will be introducing “New Student Packs for Girls and New Student Packs for Boys”. The uniform packs will have all the relevant school uniform a new student needs to start off the school year. By purchasing the pack, a small discount will be applied.

Updates on uniform can be found on our School P&C Facebook page, please find the link below

Any questions, please contact us via email at pc.bsps@outlook.com.au or you can contact the uniform shop manager Renee 0415 859 158.

Our school uniform shop is operated by our valuable P&C members.

Thank you
Renee Tsingolis
P&C President

Notes

Please click below for any notes that have gone home in the past that you might have missed:

Community News

At Blacktown South Public School, we support our local community. Click on the links for further information.

School Contacts

Assistant Principals:

P&C Association

Canteen

Canteen Team