Latest Update on School Procedures These are unprecedented times. Following the Premiers message on Monday morning where Gladys Berejiklian announced that they would like parents to keep children at home unless parents are essential service providers, the Department of Education has reinforced a similar message. The expectation is that students will remain at home unless they are children of essential service providers, the school is open for these students. Beyond this, if you have exceptional circumstances and your child needs to come to school, please contact us. Developing continuity of learning for both students at home and at school is a challenge and we are working hard, at very short notice, to ensure that this takes place. The department has developed the ‘Learning at Home Hub’ which has teaching and learning resources that can be accessed by parents and students at home. In the short term, students who come to school will be supervised accessing the same online material. We do not envisage that regular classroom teaching will continue from this point in time, instead students will be accessing the same online resources. Staff will be working hard to ensure that future learning is being catered for, not just over the next couple of weeks. They will develop packages of learning where by both students at home and those at school can access the same learning. This will also require some additional professional learning for staff which has commenced this week. We are currently doing our best to respond to this situation as it evolves, following advice from both the Department of Health and the Department of Education. We have enhanced hygiene measures and cleaning routines, along with social distancing measures in place. We want learning to continue for all students, if you do not have access to a computer or the internet, please let us know and we will see what we can organise to support your child’s learning. At present we are directing parents to the ‘Learning from Home Hub’ in order to access learning resources whilst we are busy developing ours which will be uploaded to ‘Google Classroom’ shortly, hopefully ready for next Monday. The ‘Learning from home’ Hub on the Department’s website provides information and resources for teachers and parents to support students learning from home.

A letter explaining access to our schools google classroom learning resources will be sent home as soon as we have the site ready. In the meantime, students also have access to both Reading Eggs and Mathletics from home. These are both really good resources and all students should have been provided with their user name and password. Resources and activities on these websites are tailored to suit each student’s level of achievement. Please use these most valuable resources in place of other resources that would normally go home. Please contact the classroom teacher if the user name or password has been misplaced. Staff are here to assist with learning online and can be contacted by phone or by emailing the school. Some staff will be working flexibly from home, depending on personal requirements. We will do our best to support student learning during these highly unprecedented times. Please note, the school canteen will no longer cease to operate AS FROM CLOSE OF BUSINESS WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH until further notice. NAPLAN or the National Assessment Program has been cancelled for 2020. Please look at the link below for updated information – we request you only come to school or call the office for essential reasons, as our office staff are presently inundated with calls. Please see link for Department of Education updates: https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/school-

safety/novel-coronavirus

National Day of Action Against Bullying and

Violence Last Friday, our school recognised the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence by wearing orange. Last week, every class got a chance to think about what ‘Bullying, No Way!’ meant to them and come up with a goal that they could set out to achieve by being an upstander and putting an end to observed bullying. The SRC thanks students for wearing orange and encourages everyone to uphold their goal all year. By Benji & Emily (5I)

Wednesday 25 March 2020 Communicating With Our Valued Community Term 1 - Week 9

Principal: Linda Trigg

Deputy Principal: Natalie Lennon

Newsletter

Byron Bay Public School

17 Kingsley Street Byron Bay NSW 2481

Telephone: 02 6685 6557 Fax: 02 6685 8625

Email: byronbay-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Website: www.byronbay-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Member of the Lighthouse Valley of Schools

Byron Bay Public School acknowledges and pays respect to the Arakwal people of the Bunjalung Nation, the traditional custodians of the land upon which the school proudly stands.

Principal: Linda Trigg

Deputy Principal: Natalie Lennon

Byron Bay Public School Newsletter 17 Kingsley Street Byron Bay NSW 2481

Telephone: 02 6685 6557 Fax: 02 6685 8625

Email: byronbay-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Website: www.byronbay-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

PAYMENTS CAN BE MADE ONLINE VISIT THE SCHOOL WEBSITE

“Make a Payment”

PAYMENTS NOW DUE Book Packs - $57.00

Voluntary Contribution - $55.00 (includes Mathletics, Reading Eggs, Bus

to Cross Country and Athletics plus a voluntary contribution of $30)

Year 5 Deposit Lake Ainsworth - $50

Year 4 Tyalgum Camp - $265 Year 6 Canberra Excursion deposit - $400

What's Coming Up! • Year 6 Canberra Excursion -

going ahead at this stage

SCHOOL CANTEEN CLOSURE PLEASE NOTE THE SCHOOL CANTEEN WILL CEASE TO OPERATE FROM CLOSE OF BUSINESS ON WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Wednesday 25 March 2020 Communicating With Our Valued Community Term 1 - Week 9

CLASS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS - Term 1 Week 7

Library News Borrowing from the library has been put on hold. Please take care of your borrowed library books and read as much as you can. Thank you.

CLASS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS - Term 1 Week 5/6

Lessons in the garden 1C and 1S have been learning about sustainable gardening with Deb our Gardening Learning Support Officer.

Student Absences Thank you to all the parents who have contacted us via Schoolstream, email or telephone. If you have not already done so, please notify the school by Schoolstream or email so that we can update our records. It is important that we monitor our attendance for safety reasons, the school needs to be notified of your intention to keep your child at home.

Visitors to the school Students currently may not be in their usual classroom. If you need to visit the school for any reason, please come to the front office to sign in and also out, it is very important to adhere to this at this time.

Creative Things Happen Here... 4T and 4S have been having fun in class learning about the life of Aboriginal people before European settlement. We constructed traditional huts using sticks, branches, paperbark, leaves and other natural materials.

Earth Hour – Supporting Action on Climate Change Earth Hour is on Saturday 28 March between 8.30pm - 9.30pm. Earth hour is to raise awareness of energy use in the community and also the needs of our planet in relation to climate change. During Earth Hour, switch off your lights, televisions, computers and so forth and make use of candles, flashlights and other battery operated or hand-cranked devices. Earth Hour doesn’t have to last only an hour - you can extend it for as long as you like. While not using electricity, you can talk to each other, play a game (board games, cards or charades), make shadow puppets, tell stories, go for a walk together, go outside and do some star gazing or catch up on some sleep.

Good Health Staff at Byron Bay Public School would like to wish both yourself and your family good health and hope that it continues that way for your family and friends. Please stay healthy and take care. Until next time, Mrs Linda Trigg Principal

Wednesday 25 March 2020 Communicating With Our Valued Community Term 1 - Week 9

School Banking - Volunteer Banking Coordinator Wanted... Are you interested in volunteering some of your time? Our School Banking Coordinator is looking for a volunteer to take up this role. The role only requires a very small amount of time each week to collect the students school banking and make the deposit to the bank. You will also be required to coordinate with the school and distribute any materials and rewards. If you are interested in this role, please contact the school office. Please note at this time the School banking Program will be closed from March 20 and will recommence at the start of Term 2. Please don’t bring your deposit book with your weekly banking into school and we will notify you when banking will recommence.

Creative writing in the classroom This term students in 5/6A have been developing their writing

skills by learning about descriptive language. We used the short animated film, ‘The Ocean Master’, as a stimulus and students

wrote a character description about the main character in the film, Katrina. Banjo wrote an exemplary character description which we

wanted to share with our school community to showcase our Students’ talents in creative writing.

Character Description: Katrina

Katrina is the main character in the short, animated film called ‘The Ocean Maker’. In this ten minute film, you are introduced to Katrina at the very beginning. You first glimpse her flying her self-modified plane over arid, desert, waterless climate. She is attacked by sky-pirates who fly around capturing every cloud they see. Katrina drops a special liquid using her ‘Rain Maker’ that makes clouds enlarge and rain. And so, an epic battle begins. Katrina has dark tanned skin which is not surprising as shade is scarce in this burnt, desolate world. She has scruffy, brown hair which is ruffled from many adventures. She accommodates large, curious, deep brown eyes which are always alert and aware of any danger. Throughout the film she wears a brown leather vest and large, antique aviation goggles cover her eyes. Heroine doesn’t nearly cover Katrina’s brave, intelligent personality as she is extremely sacrificial and persistent during the film. For example, when given the choice between saving herself and leaving the cloud to the pirates, she chose to do the opposite and dropped the mysterious cloud-enlarging dust onto the cloud. By doing this, she succeeded in creating rain and essentially, saving the world but at the same time sacrificing her life. One of Katrina’s brave skills is flying her self-modified aeroplane. During the film she shows off her skill when she dodges flying bullets from the enemy, manoeuvres her aircraft through them and drops the dust on the endangered clouds. Nearing the end of the film, you see Katrina’s aircraft and the enemy mega-plane both flying towards the battered cloud. Instead of pulling up and away from the cloud, she went headlong into the cloud as well as the enemy plane to finish the job and make the cloud rain. Katrina knew that this meant sacrificing her life but still, she didn’t think twice about saving herself for the world. To conclude, I believe Katrina is a goal-driven and outgoing character. While watching the movie, I developed empathy for this courageous, selfless woman. I highly recommend this short film to any child and adult alike. Banjo 5/6A

CANTEEN CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE as of close of business on Wednesday 25 March 2020. We are sorry for this Inconvenience.

Access to Online Learning Home Hub - To assist parents and carers please find below step by step instructions on how to access the Department of Education’s Online Learning. Go to https://education.nsw.gov.au/

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

Waste Free Wednesday As we are a school committed to sustainability we are keen to encourage students to come to school with a waste free lunch. Classes will be reminded on Tuesday of this important initiative and prizes will be awarded for classes with the most waste free lunches.

Byron Bay English Language School Would you like to help others learn our wonderful language?

Would extra income be nice?

BBELS is always looking for lovely local families to

host our international students

Contact for more information

homestay@bbels.com.au or 6680 8253

50 Jonson Street, Byron Bay

Phone: 6685 6825 www.byronhotbread.com

Byron Bay Public School thanks these sponsors of our newsletter who assist with the cost of publication

Advertising space available

Please contact the front office on 6685 6557

Advertising space available

Please contact the front office on 6685 6557

BYRON BAY DENTAL

John Amsden 1 Ironbark Ave Byron Bay

Mark McGrory PO Box 1282 Byron Bay 2481 office@byronbaydental.com

Tel: 6680 8138