BATES DRIVE BUZZ

TERM 1 WEEK 8 18th March 2019

Principal’s Message

Welcome back to another exciting year at Bates Drive Public School.

It has been a fabulous start to the 2019 school year and all of our students have started to settle

into their new classes.

It was with sadness that we farewelled the graduate class of 2018, but with excitement that we

give a warm welcome to the new students as well as their families and carers and we all look

forward to working with you in a collaborative manner to achieve great things for your child,

together.

The first Bates Drive community event for 2019 saw the ‘Meet the Teacher’ night, which always

includes our dedicated and professional support staff. It was very successful and definitely plenty

of information was exchanged between all parties. This allows us to work with you in partnership

to ensure that educational, social and emotional goals are met. The added bonus of these such

nights is that the parents get to meet each other and network friendships can be formed. In

speaking to some of the parents on the night, we as a school recognise and appreciate the

extended families of our students that often step up so that parents and carers are able to attend

this important event.

We have started the year with many success stories including the swimming program. The pool

enclosure was installed over the summer break and is functioning beautifully. We are in the

process of working out options to heat the pool in the cooler months and extend the swimming

season by a staggering six months!

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

TERM 1 WEEK 8 18th March 2019

Principal’s Message

The P&C successfully applied for a grant from the St. George Children with Disabilities Fund,

which will go some way in covering the cost of the pool heating. The St. George Children with

Disabilities Fund also helps us fund Rhythm Village and you as a parental and carer body sold

raffle tickets on behalf of the fund late last year.

I would personally like to acknowledge Lee Carey for his outstanding contribution to the ‘Carols in the Park’ concert for 2018. We estimate over 250 people attended and it was a seamless night due to Lee’s professionalism and many extra hours of preparation beyond the classroom. I am

sure all who attended would agree. We would also like to thank Chris from The Feros Group for providing dinner for all of us. When he first offered to cater for the event I suggested a sausage sizzle! He and his family served up a feast fit for a king!

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

Processes and Protocols – External Service Providers

My name is Victoria Pattison and I am the External Service Provider coordinator at Bates Drive

School. I would like to thank all families and service providers who have been following our

processes to organise therapy sessions with students at school. This Newsletter section is a

platform through by which I will be able to inform you of any updates to policies and procedures

that we are required to follow when organising therapy on school grounds.

Previously, as a school process we have asked parents/caregivers to notify the classroom

teacher in the communication book if a request form for therapy needed to be sent home. To

make this process more seamless, we also welcome you to email the school office. When the

office receives any emails or phone calls regarding External Service Providers, I am notified

immediately via email and I will lead the way from there. The benefit to using emails is that I can

respond more promptly, particularly each fortnight (each odd week) when I am working in the

office area of the school and myself and the office staff can easily locate up to date information.

You may also notice on the top of the request form (from term 4, 2018) that there is a section for

the parent/caregiver to insert a personal email address, this is an important feature to keep you

notified of correspondence between myself and the External Service Provider, which I

encourage as it keeps all key stakeholders well informed and creates a paper trail so we can all

locate previous information.

It is a Department of Education policy that we collect a list of documents from each External

Service Provider before visiting the school. Unfortunately there is not a centralised system for all

of their documents to be stored and we have the right to ask for this information to ensure the

safety of all students at Bates Drive School.

Some documents are valid for one year only and some documents are valid for five years. I aim

to notify providers if their document/s are going to expire soon and again if a document has

already expired. If a document has already expired, they will not be permitted on site until a valid

document is provided.

Already this year we have had an influx of new External Service Providers seeking to access the

school with success through the process. Thank you for your ongoing cooperation, it is very

much appreciated by myself and all of the staff at Bates Drive School.

Victoria Pattison

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

Clinics at Bates Drive School

At Bates Drive School, we have hosted numerous clinics over the years. We have had a variety

of clinics available to suit students’ needs and Parent/Carer requests including Medical Clinics,

Psychiatric Clinics, Gastro Clinics and Transition Clinics for students in year 11/12.

At this stage, in Term 1 of 2019, unfortunately no medical clinics have been successfully

scheduled at Bates Drive School with the Kogarah DAS team. I have been and will continue to

be proactive in attempting to coordinate clinics with the Doctors and a notification will be sent out

to Parents/Carers once we have successfully reconnected and have established dates for clinics

to commence. Thank you for your patience, I understand that there are quite a number of people

requesting clinics at the moment and as such I have created a list of student names to keep

track and allocate clinic dates as soon as they become available.

Transition Clinics have been scheduled in Term 2 for year 12 students. At this stage we have

two dates – 6th June and 13th June. Notes will be sent out to the appropriate families at the

beginning of Term 2. The year 12 Transition Clinics have been organised to take place earlier

this year so that students, teachers and families can prepare for the end of school. Year 11

Transition Clinics will take place during Term 4 with dates to be advised.

Victoria Pattison

P & C News

The P & C would like to thank all the parents who attended our first meeting. Our next meeting is on Monday 25th March, 2019. This is our AGM meeting and Easter raffle wrapping night. We would love to see you all there!

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

Bates Drive School Chaplain

I’d like to introduce myself, I’m Nicole Clark and I am employed as the School Chaplain here at Bates Drive Public School. This is my fourth year here at Bates Drive school in this role. I love spending time with the Bates Drive community including the children, staff, parents and carers. I am mainly working Tuesdays and Thursdays this year and will be spending time in the classroom assisting students and teachers. I have a social work / counselling degree through Sydney University and have worked with families experiencing disability and trauma for over 15 years.

The Chaplain role is a government funded position which aims to:

Assist schools under the Wellbeing Framework to provide holistic care for students including relational, emotional, physical and spiritual support.

Re-connect students and families with school communities, encouraging stronger engagement with school life.

Support students at risk and assist parents and carers in accessing school programs and services.

Provide a valuable addition to the wellbeing services of schools with a degree of flexibility and integrity that is not provided by any other one service.

Provide a qualified pastoral carer able to address matters with students, staff and the broader community particularly during times of crisis, grief and loss.

Facilitate community groups to assist their local school communities in a structured, productive way.

Alongside spending time in the classrooms, I also meet with parents who may reach out for some extra support from time to time or as a listening ear when times may be tough. If you would like to speak on the phone or meet for a coffee, please don’t hesitate to ring the school or email me at nicole.clark@generate.org.au I look forward to meeting you at school events or over a cup of coffee! Nicole Clark Bates Drive School Chaplain

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Learning for Life—Schools Plus Project

Welcome back to the New Year. For those parents who are not familiar with this project, we are

in the middle of our second full year of having OT services provided to the school. This has been

possible through the School Plus Grant which has kindly been supported by Toyota. It is a

collaborative project aimed at embedding OT’s within the school in conjunction with Minerva

SSP and Cook School.

UTS is evaluating how this process is unfolding in the school by data collection and data

analysis over the four year period.

Over the past year, the focus of the project has been the introduction of the concept of Zones of

Regulation within every classroom. This has involved cohort professional development for

teachers and sessions for carers. It is planned that we will have more sessions for parents

throughout the year of 2019, so please feel free to come and find out about Zones of Regulation.

Each student at the school has now had a sensory profile completed. These results have been

compiled and are available for teachers to access so they can see how the sensory processing

impacts on the learning of each student. Thank you to the parents who completed the sensory

profiles—it has really helped us in developing an understanding of your child.

The environment within Bates drive SSP is beginning to change within the classroom and the

playground environment. Staff now have access to a therapeutic swing area that is used with

all children to assist with self-regulation. It is hoped that in the coming year that changes will

happen to the COLA, playground and toilet block as a result of this project.

In the next few weeks there will be changes to the Sensory Room and a new acrobat swing. We

can’t wait to show you the photos in the next newsletter.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions on:

susan@therapyconsutlancyservices.com

Susan Heiler

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RFF Science—Year in Review

This term we are exploring all the ways we can reduce waste and look after our school

environment. We are working towards increasing our school recycling - sorting cans, bottles and

drink containers for the ‘Return and Earn’ scheme, along with introducing composting into our

routines.

As a part of our program, we participated in Clean Up Australia Day at Bates Drive Public School

on Friday 1st March. Students were involved in picking up rubbish, pulling out weeds and

gathering leaves and sticks in our playground. It was wonderful

to see so many students engaged in these activities!

Matt and Genevieve

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

School Swimming Scheme

In Week 2 and 3 of this term, all students in K-6 classes participated in the School Swimming

Scheme. This involved daily swimming lessons with qualified swimming instructors where they

worked on a range of water safety and swimming skills. It was a wonderful way to ease back into

the routine of school and try out our fantastic new pool enclosure which helped keep the water

clean and warm.

Lots of great progress was made and students will bring their certificates home this week to

show their achievements.

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Sports Ready

This term, students have commenced participating in the Disability Trust—Sports Ready

program. Each Thursday, classes combine in groups of two with the support of the Disability

Trust and Bates Drive staff to participate in a variety of sports and games. Some of the skills we

have been practising so far include ball skills—basketball and hockey skills. Throughout the

term, we will continue to be introduced to different sports and practice new skills. During Sports

Ready sessions, we also have opportunities to practise our social skills and school PBL values

which have included taking turns, listening to the teacher and following directions.

Thank you to the parents and carers who have already returned students’ notes and paid for the

Sports Ready Program. If you have yet to send in your note and/or money, please send it into

school as soon as possible or you can pay online via the school’s website.

We are all looking forward to another term of working with the Sports Ready team!

Annemarie Napier,

Sports Ready coordinator

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

CROCODILES

WOW! Can you believe how fast this term has gone? Everyone in the crocodile room has been working extremely hard this term.

We have been enjoying getting to know our new classmates during morning circle. Some of the students have enjoyed initiating verbal interactions such as greetings during this time and all have enjoyed participating using the Picture Exchange Communication System.

We are building up our fitness through different activities that have doubled up as sensory experiences. These include swimming, the swings, the sensory room, bike riding, climbing, hockey and so much more. We have also started an in-depth study into safe places and people. For instance, we have focused on our community including our school, home, teachers, police officers, ambulance workers and more.

Other things we have been working on include communication, Zones of Regulation, self-help skills including cooking and taking care of our belongings.

There has been so much happening these last few weeks, we look forward to seeing how the Crocodiles will continue to learn and grow over the remainder of the term.

Catherine & Rebecca

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

COCKATOOS

Hello from the Cockatoo class of 2019!

We have had a wonderful start to the year. This year, the Cockatoo class is made up of 6 energetic and adventurous boys.

Our year has started off with lots of swimming and play skills. We loved having swim school where we were able to jump into the pool every day for two weeks. We were lucky enough to have the sunshine join us each day as well. We have kept our swimming up ever since with the

Cockatoo boys jumping in the pool at least twice a week. Along with swimming, we have been developing our play skills with lots of different play-based tasks. Sensory, messy play is a favourite among all the Cockatoo boys. The messier the better! However we have enjoyed building with a wide range of blocks, puzzles, musical instruments and trucks and cars. Through our play development sessions we have practiced sharing, turn-taking and problem solving.

Each morning, we start our day with ‘breakfast club’. The boys have been working on making choices from the PECS board of what they want for breakfast. So far we have cut up different fruits, made toast with a variety of spreads and our favourite has been making pancakes!

We have started a structured literacy program in class which involves guided reading and sight word activities. We are blown away at how each of the boys have responded to these tasks. We can’t wait to progress through this program over the year and see what the boys are made of.

From all the Cockatoo friends, we wish all of our friends in other classes a successful and fun 2019! On behalf of Belinda, Emma and myself we are excited to see what 2019 brings!

Ciara, Belinda and Emma

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

SEAHORSES

Welcome to 2019! The Seahorses have had a fantastic start to the year! We have finally got our

timetable organised, which will include swimming, sensory circle, swing time, communication,

Zones of Regulation, PBL, community access, literacy and numeracy work. So far we’ve looked

at Chinese New Year and the year of the pig, and made Valentine’s Day cards for our parents.

We are also beginning our Geography unit of work on ‘Local Places’, where we will be looking at

community helpers like police, ambulance officers, doctors, nurses and fire fighters. We will also

be lucky enough to have a visit from ambulance officers and fire fighters throughout the term!

We would like to welcome a new student to our school, Mackenzie! She has settled into her new

classroom and routines exceptionally well! Brady has started using his iPad to communicate with

new staff and is enjoying our sensory circle, in particular our deep breathing exercises. Marley

and Emily are having a fantastic time in the pool every Monday morning and are also working

hard on their communication. Akif’s favourite time of the week is Sports Ready, especially when

he can practice his basketball skills. He sits and waits patiently for his turn every week. Jeremy

has come back full of energy this year, and is loving his new class and getting to know his new

friends. He finds them pretty funny and we get lots of giggles and laughs!

We are looking forward to the holidays – especially when the Easter bunny comes and leaves us

yummy chocolate to find and eat!

Shinead will be off on an overseas trip for week 10, 11 and week 1 and 2 of next term, so

fantastic casual teachers have been booked to work on the class. Joanne and Tracy will be there

to make sure everything goes smoothly, too.

From Shinead, Joanne and Tracy

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

KOOKABURRAS

We are the Kookaburras and we have had a fantastic start to 2019. The students in our class are

settling in to their new routines and getting familiar with all that goes on during the week at Bates

Drive. As the term has progressed we have added to the schedule and the students are

responding with enthusiasm.

Week 1: Getting to know everyone

We began by getting to know each other through building the daily routines of walking to the

classroom, reviewing our visual schedule, Positive Behaviour for Learning and Zones of

Regulation identification. We visually reinforced mealtimes, self-care routines and when the

break times occur to prompt students. Students have responded well to the star reward chart—

when they have earned 5 stars for doing positive things, students have selected a choice reward.

The Kookaburras have established their table space and have participated in creative art

activities to make our class mascot, birthday display and Chinese New Year poster.

Week 2&3: The primary school participated in an intensive daily swimming program. Students

were encouraged to improve their skills and techniques. We even had a student hesitant to get in

who eventually swam every day in the second week. We were all very excited. Sports Ready

also started during this time and we have explored different movement pathways and sporting

skills that have to do with basketball and hockey.

Week 4&5: We began our unit of work on Local Places- emergency services and people we can

ask for help. Students have been sorting photos of Fire and Police and completing games online

regarding safe practices. We started our cooking program with the Kangaroos class. So far we

have made Nachos and Pizzas and the students mostly loved these two options. Kookaburras

took the PECS canteen around the school and each of our students took turns buying and selling

items and matching coins. There are more and more participants every week which is great to

see.

Week 6&7: Our whole school literacy program is almost complete and students have taken well to identifying high frequency sight words and reading a levelled reader. The Kookaburras were all engaged and put in a huge effort to complete their work. Well done. We are so proud of your achievements and look forward to working with this program throughout the year.

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

KANGAROOS

Hello and welcome to the Kangaroos class! We have had a great start to the year with class

activities seeing us all giggle – this is why I love school!

Our sensory program is in full swing – literally – as are our OT programs, living skills programs

and curriculum lessons.

Students have gained some new skills already, including swimming for our primary students

during the Swimming School program in week 2 and 3. We have great plans for the year ahead

including bus trips, visits to the Library, cooking and class swimming each week. Our primary

students have a new and improved literacy program that has seen great engagement so far, as

they demonstrate their emerging reading skills. Meanwhile, our high school boys are gaining skills

in cooking, living skills and demonstrating their awesome art skills in their unit of work on

Aboriginal history.

We are next door to the Kookaburras class which means we can team teach for some of our

activities. This means that we have two awesome SLSOs available to help us through the day. I

am so lucky to have Narelle who supports us daily and Deb who is also on hand when the

cooking and swimming lessons are underway.

A big thank you to the generous families who have donated fantastic sensory equipment to our classroom. We now have a soft play area which is perfect for mobility and sensory programs as well as a hammock which assists in sensory regulation. We have all had turns, including Narelle

and myself… some of the students find it hilarious when I get stuck in the hammock!

Kirrily and Narelle

MINNAMURRA

Welcome to 2019! The Minnamurra class has begun their weekly literacy and numeracy rotations, focusing on time and pattern for this term. The students have been consistent with following their schedules and already following our PBL expectations to follow directions and listen to the teacher. They have been on fire this year! We started our community learning programs and have been to various new locations such as shopping at the new South Village Coles and Aldi, as well as having lunch at Grill’d. Each week, the Minnamurra students go shopping for their cooking ingredients as well as any canteen items that need to be restocked. The students love getting out, exploring places in our local community and participating in excursion programs. For our unit on Aboriginal History, the Minnamurra class has been bush walking in the local reserve and in the National Park. We have been bird watching, feeling textures on various rocks and trees as well as having picnics in the beautiful bush. Later in the term, we will be attending a hands on full day excursion to the Botany Bay Education Centre in Kurnell. Here we will see traditional Aboriginal artworks and learn more about their Indigenous history. This term we also participated in a Hatch and Grow program where we hatched duck eggs, raised them and taught them how to swim. The students absolutely loved seeing the ducks grow and taking care of them. We have had an excellent start to the year and can ’t wait to see what Term 2 brings!

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ANNAN

Welcome back, everyone and a big Bates Drive welcome to a new student, Christopher, who is

in the Annan class!

In the Annan class we have started settling into routines. Recently, we started our community

learning programs—visiting places in the Sutherland Shire. This week, as a part of our recycling

program, we visited the Earn and Return centre at Sutherland. This outing has supported our

learning with regards to the unit of work in Science Life Skills—recycling.

On Monday and Thursday each week, the Annan class have been combining with the Lennard

and Kookaburra classes to go swimming, which is one of our favourite activities. With the new

pool cover, we will be able to use the pool more often throughout the year! With our mathematics

programs, we have been learning about shapes and number and for history we have been

learning about Aboriginal Australian history.

At Bates Drive School, we have had very some very special and very cute visitors—ducklings!

As well as petting and holding the ducks, we have been able to watch the ducks hatch and grow.

Students and staff enjoyed observing and interacting with the baby ducklings, who have now

gone to a farm to grow up and create more duckling eggs!

Till next time!

Annemarie, Carmen and Shirley

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VALE

Welcome back to yet again another school year. On a personal note, I would like to say that it ’s

wonderful to be back at Bates Drive School!

In the Vale class this year we have 5 students. We are also very fortunate to have Kelly and

Teresa who job-share as our class SLSO, along with Genevieve who is our RFF Teacher.

It has been a busy start to the school year. Each morning we participate in our Teen Talk

program that incorporates a range of literacy and numeracy programs. The program, which is

accessed via the interactive whiteboard and supported by the use of our visual supports, assists

us in learning to identify our photographs, name, address, the days of the week, months of the

year, the seasons and the weather. We enjoy viewing a range of familiar music clips as well.

We started our History Life Skills theme work by celebrating Chinese New Year and the year of

the Pig. We completed matching activities, learnt about Chinese culture and traditions and

completed a range of visual arts activities such as painting golden pigs. We celebrated

Valentine’s Day by making a Valentine’s Day card for someone special. For the past 2 weeks we

have started a new unit of work on Aboriginal History and have begun a wall display that depicts

Aboriginal culture and artwork.

In PDHPE, we have been enjoying going for a morning walk and using the Liberty Swing. Each

Thursday we have also been actively participating in the Sports Ready program.

Looking forward to an exciting year ahead!

Vanessa, Kelly, Teresa and Genevieve

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

NEPEAN

Hello, everyone and welcome to Term 1, 2019! In the Nepean class we have been very busy

learning about each other – with some new faces in the room and learning our daily routines.

This year we have two Teachers – Nicole Pitt (odd weeks) and Victoria Pattison (even weeks).

We also have two SLSOs – Cassie Irvine (Monday and Friday) and Jen Scheers (Tuesday-

Thursday). We have all gotten to know each other quite well already and our classroom remains

a happy and positive learning space.

With learning programs well under way, students are learning about all of our topics in integrated

units of work including the key learning areas of History - Indigenous Australian History, English

– My Place in the Community, Maths – Time and Number and Visual Arts – I am. Each

Wednesday afternoon, students complete the Science unit of work – Reuse and Recycle with

the Release Teacher, Genevieve. On a Thursday, we have been cooking and will shortly turn

this into a pizza-cooking day, along with Friday on which we will travel to the club for lunch!

In addition to our weekly classroom programs, we have also commenced our Sports Ready

program each Thursday after recess. So far, students have been practising their basketball skills

including learning to bounce the ball with two hands, bounce the ball with one hand and shoot

some hoops! Now that we have a spectacular pool cover, we complete swimming twice a week

on Tuesday and Friday mornings. We are excited for this to continue during Autumn and

possibly during Winter this year as the water remains warmer under the cover.

Victoria, Nicole, Cassie and Jen

BATES DRIVE BUZZ

LENARD

Welcome to the first Lennard newsletter of 2019!

I am thrilled to have started our school year with a wonderful class of boys that are engaged and

are eager to learn!

The Lennard class consists of 7 boys all ranging from years 9, 10, 11, and 12. 3 Three of our

students will be completing school this year and I feel very privileged to have them in the

Lennard class in their final year of school.

The boys have hit the ground running and gotten straight back into our school routines and

lessons, like clockwork! Term one has seen us dive into the: Cognitive Rehabilitation (COGS)

program, reading, handwriting, maths, history (Aboriginal history), bike riding, exercise, music

therapy, the Community Learning program to the Kareela Golf Club for lunch, Sports Ready and

swimming in the pool!

It has been a very settled return for all students and we are anticipating a great year ahead.

I am very lucky to be working with two great SLSOs—Natalie (Mon – Thurs) and Donna (Fri).

Both staff are well trained, kind, caring and know the students well.

Here is to another great year at our wonderful school!

Lee, Nat and Donna

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