Wednesday 12 February – P&C AGM

Monday 17 February – Swimming Carnival

Principal’s Message 2020 P&C Committee

It’s that time again. We are looking for community members to join us in providing opportunities and

experiences for our children.

If you are interested in becoming part of our P&C, please consider filling out the 2020 committee

nomination form included in this newsletter.

If you would like more information, please feel free to come and chat to me, or our current P&C President

Karen Pochodyla.

We need you!!!!

Summer PSSA

This year we are going to participate in Summer PSSA. Trials will be held later this week and over the next

couple of weeks. Minchinbury PS is attempting to enter three summer sports – league tag, cricket,

newcombe ball. The only thing that will hold us back is if other schools do not also provide teams for

these sports. We will inform the whole community later in the term if our students will be participating in

a competition with other schools. At this point in time, we will go ahead with the trials.

Our Term 2 and Term 3 PSSA sports will continue to be touch football, soccer and netball. Trials for these

sports will occur at the end of this term.

PSSA is a competition against other schools. Students who are selected to be part of the team have

participated in trials, and at that time, have demonstrated the skills to play competitive sport. There are a

limited number of places in any team. We encourage all students to try out for the teams. However, only

a specific number of students will be selected for the teams.

Communication Reminders

Skoolbag app: Don’t forget to download our free MPS app. This has calendar events for MPS, newsletters

and much more. Instructions are in this newsletter.

Facebook: Our school has a Facebook page that provides updates on both school organisation and

learning in classrooms.

Seesaw: All classes use Seesaw to communicate with families. Your child’s teacher will communicate with

you about accessing your child’s class on Seesaw.

Me: The best way to get in touch with me is through the front office. Sometimes I don’t immediately see

posts on our online platforms.

Miss Rebecca Webster

Principal DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

See the term overview in this newsletter

Minchinbury Public School 202 McFarlane Drive

Minchinbury, 2770 Principal: Miss Webster

https://www.facebook.com/minchinburyps

www.minchinbur-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/

4 February 2020

A parent made a donation to our

school for a school hat…not for her

child, but just in case another child

needs to buy a school hat!

This is why Minchinbury is such a

great place to be.

MINCHINBURY PUBLIC SCHOOL P&C ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Notice is hereby given that the 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Minchinbury Public School P&C Association will

be held on Wednesday 12 February 2020.

Meeting Details

Date: Wednesday 12 February 2020

Time: 9.15am

Place: Hall

We thank you for your continued support and look forward to welcoming you at the meeting.

Ms Karen Pochodyla

2019 President

Minchinbury Public School P&C Association

MINCHINBURY PUBLIC SCHOOL P&C ASSOCIATION

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR 2020 POSITIONS

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 12 February 2020 at 9.15am.

Nominations are called for the following positions:

President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Fundraising Coordinator.

Nominations must be submitted to the Principal of Minchinbury Public School, who will act as the returning officer,

no later than 3pm on Tuesday 11 February 2020.

Ms Karen Pochodyla

2019 President

Minchinbury Public School P&C Association

MINCHINBURY PUBLIC SCHOOL P&C ASSOCIATION

NOMINATION FORM – 2020

Position Nominated: _____________________________________________________________________

Name of the Nominee: ___________________________________________________________________

Name of the Proposer: ________________________________ Signature: __________________________

Name of the Seconder: _______________________________ Signature: ___________________________

I accept the nomination to the above position.

Signature of the nominee: ___________________________________ Date: _________________________

MPS P&C News

Minchinbury Public School Pride Moments Playground Upgrade

Thank you to our community for being so patient as we upgrade

our playground. Grass has started to be laid today!

We will have grass to play on very soon.

Progress photos…

Minchinbury Public School Pride Moments Thank you Woolies!

Woolworths provided MPS with a free box of bananas to

distribute to the students.

After a posting on Facebook the night before, many students

visited Miss Webster’s office and said the phrase ‘I love

Minchinbury’. Once they said that, they received a free banana.

Thanks Woolies!

Term 1 Information Please remember that information about upcoming events is included on our

Skoolbag App. Information about how to download the app is on the last page

of this newsletter.

Only major events are noted here. Please check the calendar on the Skoolbag

App for the full list.

School Week

Date Event

1 Wednesday 29 January Year 1 to Year 6 students start

2 Monday 3 February Kindergarten students start

2 Tuesday 4 February 3.30pm-4.30pm: Meet the teacher in classrooms

2 Thursday 6 February 9.15am: Year 6 shirt presentation 2pm: Stage 3 assembly (assemblies held every fortnight)

2 Friday 7 February Summer PSSA trials 2pm: Stage 1 assembly (assemblies held every fortnight)

3 Wednesday 12 February 9 – 11: Year 6 MPS students to visit RHHS 9.15: P&C AGM in hall

3 Thursday 13 February 2pm: Stage 2 assembly (assemblies held every fortnight)

3 Friday 14 February Summer PSSA trials 2pm: Kindergarten assembly (assemblies held every fortnight)

4 Monday 17 February Swimming Carnival

5 All week Wellbeing Week

5 Wednesday 26 February Zone Swimming Carnival

5 Thursday 27 February High School Expression of Interests sent home Investiture Assembly

5 Friday 28 February Summer PSSA begins Clean Up Schools Day

6 Tuesday 3 March P&C Mufti Day for Easter Raffle

6 Thursday 5 March Leadership Day with students from Eastern Creek PS and Rooty Hill PS

7 Tuesday 10 March Evacuation Drill

7 Wednesday 11 March Scripture starts P&C meeting

7 Thursday 12 March Selective High School Placement Test

8 Wednesday 18 March School Photo Day

8 Thursday 19 March Harmony Day at MPS

9 Tuesday 24 March Stage 3 Fundraiser – Snail Trail

9 Wednesday 25 March School Cross Country

10

11 Monday 6 April P&C Easter Raffle Drawn

11 Wednesday 8 April K-2 Easter Hat Parade

11 Thursday 9 April ANZAC Day Ceremony Last day of Term 1

Evidence-Based Teaching Practices to Support Our Students Your children may come home from school and start talking about a couple of changes to

2020 teaching practices. We have implemented some changes that are based on research

and have been seen to have lasting educational benefits for students.

There are two significant changes that we have implemented this year:

15 Minute Brain Breaks in the Morning and Middle Session

All classes will implement a 15 minute brain break for students in both the

morning and middle sessions of the school day. Teachers will spend the first

couple of weeks of the term establishing routines for the students. By week 3 of

this term, all students will participate in a movement brain break.

If you are interested in investigating this further, consider starting with the work

of Professor Pasi Sahlberg. He is a Finnish educator who is currently Professor of

Educational Policy and Deputy Director of the Gonski Institute for Education at

the University of New South Wales.

To quote statements Professor Sahlberg has made in his latest book, Let the

Children Play, 2019:

Real play helps to form new neural connections in the brain while strengthening existing pathways. Real play facilitates children’s emotional development.

“Play is fundamentally important for learning 21st

century skills, such as problem solving, collaboration, and creativity, which require the executive functioning skills that are critical for adult success.”

“Play helps to build the skills required for our changing world; and play provides a singular opportunity to build the executive functioning that underlies adaptive behaviours at home; improve language and math skills in school; build the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships that buffer against toxic stress; and build social-emotional resilience.”

10 Minutes of Music Daily There is a great deal of research that links brain development and music.

If you are interested in investigating this

further, consider starting with the work of Dr

Anita Collins, Neuromusical Educator. You can

easily find information about her and her work

on the internet. She has also delivered a TED

Talk titled, The Benefits of Music Education.

This talk can be found on YouTube.

To quote a couple statements Dr Collins has made:

What Does This Mean for MPS?

All classroom teachers will deliver 10 minutes of a music program to students each

day.

During Term 1, teachers will establish the routine of the music program.

By Term 2, all classes will have the routine of 10 minutes of music embedded into

classroom timetables.

But when scientists turned from observing the brains of music listeners to those of musicians, the little backyard fireworks became a jubilee. It turns out that while listening to music engages the brain in some pretty interesting activities, playing music is the brain's equivalent of a full-body workout. The neuroscientists saw multiple areas of the brain light up, simultaneously processing different information in intricate, interrelated, and astonishingly fast sequences.

Because making music also involves crafting and understanding its emotional content and message, musicians often have higher levels of executive function, a category of interlinked tasks that includes planning, strategizing, and attention to detail and requires simultaneous analysis of both cognitive and emotional aspects. This ability also has an impact on how our memory systems work. And, indeed, musicians exhibit enhanced memory functions, creating, storing, and retrieving memories more quickly and efficiently. Studies have found that musicians appear to use their highly connected brains to give each memory multiple tags, such as a conceptual tag, an emotional tag, an audio tag, and a contextual tag, like a good Internet search engine.

2020 MPS School Uniform

Dear families,

Students are to wear full MPS school uniform.

The MPS uniform is:

All days except sports days Sports days Girls (Kindergarten to Year 5)

Green checked dress or dark green MPS shirt and dark green shorts

Boys (Kindergarten to Year 5)

Dark green MPS shirt and dark green shorts

Girls (Year 6) Green checked dress or Year 6 shirt and dark green

shorts

Boys (Year 6) Year 6 shirt and dark green shorts

All students White socks Black shoes

All students Purple sports shirt and dark green shorts

White socks Running / active shoes (any colour)

Please note that all students are

to wear white socks. White is the

only colour of socks that is worn

as part of the Minchinbury Public

School uniform.

Our Year 6 students will receive their Year 6 shirts

tomorrow.

Rebecca Webster

Principal

5 February 2019

MINCHINBURY PUBLIC SCHOOL 202 McFarlane Drive Minchinbury 2770

Telephone: 9832 1488 Fax: 9832 1713

Email: minchinbur-p.admin@det.nsw.edu.au

Web site: www.minchinbur-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Principal: Rebecca Webster

Days students wear purple sports

shirts

Only on their sport day

Notes home Date Grade Title of note

29 January All students Novel Coronavirus

29 January All students School Map / MPS Staff List

30 January Year 3 to 6; Some Year 2 Swimming Carnival

30 January All students Principal’s Morning Tea / Meet the Teacher

30 January Year 3 & 4 2020 Class Needs

30 January Year 1 & 2 2020 Class Needs

4 February Kindergarten 2020 Class Needs

4 February All students 2020 Homework Policy

4 February Year 6 Invite to RHHS on 12 February

Notes sent home will have a deadline for payments and for notes to be returned to the school. No payments or notes will be accepted after the deadline has passed. If you will not be able to meet the deadline and wish your child to be involved in the ‘note activity’ you must contact the office BEFORE the deadline has passed.

Health Tips

MPS Notifications

Collection of students in the afternoons

Please do not collect students in the afternoon if you have not

spoken to the parent/carer of the child.

Even if you are a relative or close family friend, do not ask a

child to go home with you without first talking to the

parent/carer.

We have had some stressful situations in which a parent/carer

comes to collect a child in the afternoon and a relative has

already collected the child in the afternoon without informing

the parent/carer.

Timing of messages to students

Please contact the office before 3pm if you need

to communicate a message to your child.

Office staff members will not walk to the shops

to deliver messages to your child when you have

called the school after 3pm.