0 - Ironbark Ridge PS 1 Ironbark Ridge Road, Rouse Hill, 2155 Ph: 8814 5687 Fax: 8814 5698 Email: ironbarkrg-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Webpage: www.ironbarkrg-p.schools.nsw.gov.au Nurturing personal growth through inspired learning…

Newsletter 2019

Term 2 Week 3 17th May, 2019 Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful

DATES FOR THE DIARY MAY 20th - Be Skilled Be Fit 3 – 6, NAPLAN (Language conventions) Years 3 & 5 only 22nd - 2M & 6L Assembly, 7.00pm – P & C Meeting 23rd - Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6 24th - Be Skilled Be Fit K-2, Ridges Cross Country 27th – Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6 29th - 2K & 6A Assembly 30th – Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6 31st Be Skilled Be Fit K-2, Winter PSSA

JUNE 3rd – Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6 4th 1J, 1CB & 1R Excursion

** Subscribe to our ‘Ironbark Ridge – Events’ Google calendar (see the app or the school website)

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

The Ironbark Way… We are fast approaching the mid-way point of our 2018-20 School 3-Year Plan, and as a result we have been measuring our progress against our milestones and reflecting on this data. The Ironbark Ridge way is to relentlessly focus on growth - from our learners, from our teachers, from our school and indeed from our community (not in a housing sense, people! ). This creates the need for us to carefully balance our sense of urgency with our recognition of our incremental successes, to balance our focus on what works best to maximise learning… with opportunities to innovate and be inspired learners ourselves. We are respectful of our Ironbark Ridge traditions and past endeavours whilst being strong in striving for future excellence! The Ironbark Way is to not get too caught up in the hype, but rather to balance events like NAPLAN… with maintaining our focus on what matters most – nurturing confident, successful, inspired learners, and ensuring there is expert teaching happening in every classroom every day. The rest will take care of itself. Connections Focus is essential for learning, particularly when we are presented with completely new or complex information. Our focus happens in our Working Memory, and studies have shown it is an extremely limited part of our brain, being on average only able to hold and consciously think about 4 or 5 items at a time. Learners can quickly be placed in an ‘overload’ situation by being asked to remember too many new pieces of information at once. This is known as Cognitive Overload. Our job as a learner is to move information from our working (and short-term) memory into our storage or long-term memory. This can only be done by connecting the new knowledge to existing knowledge, by creating conceptual understandings and by building schemas in our brain – sort of like putting tags and labels on the new concepts so in the future we can quickly find them, sort them and use them. In contrast to the cognitive overload that can quickly occur in your Working Memory, research and studies have not been able to determine any limit to the amount of information from long-term storage memory that the human brain is able to process at any one time! Wow! So the more connections we can create when storing new information, the more easily we will be able to find it again and use it! This process of looking for connections is not easy, however, and in school-aged learners the areas of the brain responsible for this action of ‘synthesising’ and making connections is relatively immature – kids’ neural circuitry for this connection-making process is still developing. A link between a new concept

and one previously learnt might seem obvious to an adult but perhaps not to a child whose frontal cortex is still developing. It is therefore important we explicitly show young learners the connections with their existing knowledge… that we practice searching for connections together, and over time we will make this search habitual. It is a Successful Learner Habit. Walking to school… safely Today was the annual Walk Safely to School Day, an opportunity and encouragement for families to develop healthy active lifestyle practices as well as focus on pedestrian safety strategies. With our nearby traffic signals under construction we chose to postpone this focus until new options and facilities are complete. We look forward to having a safer way for our students and families to cross Withers Road given the wonderful pathways and recreation areas available in our local community. Please stay tuned for our day of focus on active & healthly travel options to school and safe pedestrian behaviours around Ironbark Ridge

Teaching Practice: Releasing responsibility In the interest of accelerating learning across our school, Ironbark Ridge teachers use a model for instruction that assists students in clearly seeing the learning, building connections and developing independence. The diagram to the left details both teaching and learning practices, with a simplistic understanding of each stage of the learning mastery process. Explicit instruction, as mentioned above, has been shown by many studies to reduce cognitive load to enhance learning and can be adopted in any subject or situation and works for learners of all ages. Expert teaching will clearly demonstrate the new process or knowledge with links to prior learning, then provide learners

with a chance to practice under very close and often step-by-step coaching, before learners are released to work collaboratively with less guidance, and finally to practice the skill or knowledge whilst self-reflecting on their progress and further improvement required to reach mastery. This is referred to as the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model, and drives much of our planning and many of the teaching practices at Ironbark Ridge. NAPLAN Online Despite some reported issues with the NAPLAN online testing procedures at other schools this week, the

Ironbark Ridge experience for our Year 3 and Year 5 students has been extremely positive. Thanks to the hard work and preparation of several teachers and their teams (Ms Barton, Ms Carter, et al) our devices and internet infrastructure worked well. The adaptive testing possible through the

NAPLAN online platform means that ALL students can be presented with assessment tasks that stretch and challenge them in ‘The Goldilocks Zone’… not too easy and not too hard but just right. This results in a more accurate measure of what they already know and what they will need to

learn next in their learning journey. Congratulations to all of our students for their Focus and Persistence in the tests.

Empty trains… not for long! Sunday 26th May heralds the day we will finally see humans aboard the trains whizzing overhead along the raised Metro train line between Rouse Hill and Norwest. Our newspaper-celebrity Ironbark Ridge student Hayden (2C) will be on an early train having a great time, no doubt . The first train open to us mere members of the public is scheduled to leave Rouse Hill Station at 11.07am, with trains following every ten minutes until just after 9.30pm. What a great family outing idea for next Sunday, so check out the information at the link here: https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/ways-to-get-around/metro#/ Bus timetable change If your child catches the 605 bus in the morning, please take note of the change in times. The pick up time is now 8.21am. Please note the updated timetable in this newsletter.

Parenting ideas - Teach Girls to build each other up! Late this month (29th May) there is an opportunity to view a webinar on this important topic exploring emotional intelligence, recognising ones own worth, what to do when things go wrong in friendships, and developing assertiveness and kindness in girls. The webinar is free if you use the special voucher code published later in this newsletter. Three Martial Arts Medalists! Congratulations to Beau (6S), Carly (KA) and Zara (5W) who recently competed in the Gold Coast Open international Taekwondo tournament. There were competitors from many countries such as Nepal, Malaysia, Korea, New Zealand and also from every state in Australia. Our Ironbarkers performed amazingly: Beau and Zara won gold, and Carly won bronze! Sensational! Yours in lifelong learning… always looking for connections along the way, Nick Thomson Principal PS: See you all at the traditional festival called “Voting Day” here tomorrow, Saturday 18th May. The traditional Cake Stall and Public School BBQ will of course be in operation so bring along some spare cash and possibly even think about volunteering to help out for an hour or so.

DEPUTY PRINCIPALS’ REPORT NAPLAN Well done to our Year 3 and 5 students and teachers for their participation in the annual NAPLAN. This year there has been a change to the way we do our NAPLAN testing. Other than writing for Year 3, all tests have and will be conducted online. Our students have done a brilliant job of not only managing the tests but dealing with the changes. The results of these tests are just a snapshot of our students' learning, as teachers collect information and data on our students daily through observations, work samples, school-based assessments and through daily conversations with their students. Although the NAPLAN tests are certainly not the only data source we use, they do go some way to helping us make strategic decisions for tracking trends in school growth and improvement. Earn and Learn As a community we are currently involved in collecting stickers as part of the Woolworths Earn & Learn program. Last year, as a result of your wonderful assistance, we were able to claim a number of great resources for learning in our school. Resources included literacy and numeracy teaching equipment as well as educational play resources for use in the school’s outstanding Ridgy-Didge Buddies playground program. If you shop at Woolworths, please remember to collect stickers to put them on a sticker sheet and ‘post’ them in the special box in the school office foyer or at Woolworths at North Kellyville and Rouse Hill. Assessment and Reporting Teachers are currently assessing students and finalising their data and teacher observations in preparation for writing Semester 1 reports. These will come home in the last week of this term. Formal Parent-Teacher Interviews will take place in Term 3. However, if you have any concerns at all regarding your child’s progress, we encourage you to contact the office to make a time to speak to your child’s classroom teacher. Mother’s Day – Thank You! Thank you to our dedicated team of P&C volunteers who worked extremely hard under the direction of Mrs Young to manage the Mother's Day stall last week. Our students loved having the opportunity to buy their presents and lovingly give them to their mothers. These events are highly valued by our community, and we appreciate the huge amount of time and organisation that goes into them. We are very grateful to our P&C for the outstanding job that they do for not only this event but all events throughout the year. Winter Uniform We officially moved into our winter uniform on Monday 13th May. However, we would ask that the weather forecast is taken into consideration when dressing your child immediately before and after this date. We encourage all students to take pride in their school. One way of displaying this pride is to wear the school uniform. Please help us by encouraging our students to take pride in their appearance by wearing the correct school uniform. Attendance Parents, a reminder that if your child is late to school, it is your responsibility to sign in at the office. There are many reasons that students are late, however ‘slept in’, ‘traffic’ or ‘running late’ are not acceptable reasons. Office staff will need to adhere to DoE guidelines and write whether the reason for being late or absent is justified. We work closely with a Home School Liaison Officer who regularly monitors our attendance data. As Deputy Principal, we oversee all class rolls and monitor student attendance records. If a student has been absent, an explanation note is legally required. If a note is not received within 7 days this is recorded as an ‘unexplained absence’ in our attendance system. Please note emails are sent out daily, and it is best if absences are explained promptly either with a handwritten note, phone call to the office, or via our system on the app. Interrelate We are able to confirm that we reached the minimum of families who have indicated that they wish to attend the Interrelate presentation and therefore it will go ahead. A note will be sent out next week. Have a great weekend, Kerrie Pho and Kerry De Jager Deputy Principals

ADMINISTRATION Due to the opening of the new Sydney Metro Norwest, Hillsbus have advised us of some changes. Please carefully check the information below, and the new timeable attached to the newsletter.

As the new Sydney Metro Norwest will open on 26th May, 2019, there will be some changes to Hillsbus public routes.

• Route M60 will be renumbered to 600. The services remain unchanged. • Route M61 will be renumbered to 610X. The services remain unchanged. • Route 604 will operate through Hills Showground Station. • New Route 617 operates between Adelphi St, Rouse Hill, Beaumont Hills and Kellyville Station. • Route 619 will operate through Hills Showground Station. • Route 626 will not operate to James Henty Dr and Jenner Rd, and it will be extended to Kellyville

Station via Cherrybrook Station and Castle Hill. • Route 633 will operate via Victoria Rd and Castle Hill Rd to Cherrybrook Station and Castle Hill

Station. It will no longer operate via Thompsons Corner or Coonara Ave and Highs Rd. • Route 635 will operate via Coonara Ave to Cherrybrook Station and Anglican Retirement Village to

Castle Hill. It will no longer operate via Ellerslie Dr. • Route 714 will commence and terminate at Norwest Station. • Route T60 will operate through Norwest Station via Barina Downs Rd and Reston Grange.

Also, additional 605 services will be provided between North Kellyville and Rouse Hill Station. We advise all students to check their services before travelling.

Students can travel on the Metro with their existing SSTS Opal cards. For more details about the coming changes, please visit www.transportnsw.info

Ironbark Ridge Public School Parent Planner Term 2 2019

** Note: All dates on this planner are subject to change at the discretion of the school. Updated 26.3.19

Week Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sat/Sun

4 May

20 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6 NAPLAN Online – Years 3 & 5 Language Conventions

21 NAPLAN Online- Yr 3 & 5 Numeracy Test

22 2.20pm – 2M & 6L Assembly 7pm P&C Meeting

23 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

24 Be Skilled Be Fit K-2 RIDGES CROSS COUNTRY

25/26

5 May/June

27 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

28 29 2.20pm – 2K & 6A Assembly

30 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

31 Be Skilled Be Fit K-2 Winter PSSA

1/2

6 June

3 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

4 1J, 1CB & 1R Excursion

5 2.20pm – 2W & 6J Assembly

6 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

7 Be Skilled Be Fit K-2 Winter PSSA

8/9

7 June

10 Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday

11 12 2.20pm – 1J & 4E Assembly

13 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

14 Be Skilled Be Fit K-2 Winter PSSA

15/16

8 June

17 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

18

19 2.20pm – 2D & 5E Assembly

20 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

21 Be Skilled Be Fit K-2 Winter PSSA

22/23

9 June

24 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

25 Earn & Learn ends

26 2.20pm – 2A & 6S Assembly

27 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

28 Be Skilled Be Fit K-2 Winter PSSA

29/30

10 July

1 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

IRPS Athletics Carnival

2

3 2pm - Whole School Assembly

4 Be Skilled Be Fit 3-6

Reports sent home

5 Be Skilled Be Fit K-2 No PSSA

6/7

Kindy Capers

Kindergarten have had a busy fortnight and are back into their routines after the holiday break. We hope all Mums were spoiled on Sunday and enjoyed their gifts, cards and a cup of tea. This week was our third gymnastics lesson and all students are having a great time

developing their skills with the instructors on the specialist equipment. We’re also becoming better at getting our shoes and socks back on quickly and on the correct feet! Everyone is looking very smart in their Winter uniform this week although as the day warms up we do get a lot of discarded jackets about the classrooms. Please mark your child’s name clearly so we can ensure clothing is returned to the correct owner. Our science lessons on materials and their properties are progressing well and students will soon bring home a note requiring them to bring a toy to school so that we can discuss and compare what they are made from. You can support your child by helping them with their selection and discussing the material at home. ES1 Teachers

Stage 1 Snippets

What a busy couple of weeks we have had! Excursion Most of our Stage 1 classes have had a great time in the city on our excursion. We visited the Sydney Observatory, which reinforced what the students learnt in Science and English in Term 1. They were fascinated with looking at the Sun through the big telescope. We also explored Susannah Place where the students were intrigued about how people lived 170 years ago. The student’s behaviour has been fantastic and all classes that have attended have represented Ironbark Ridge with pride. 1J, 1CB & 1R will be attending on 4th June. We know that they will also have a great time.

Gymnastics Students have been enjoying participating in the ‘Be Skilled, Be Fit’ program. The students are thoroughly enjoying learning new skills on the bars, beams and trampolines.

Uniform Winter is creeping up on us. Just a reminder that students are now required to wear their full winter school uniform. Reading Please continue to encourage your child to return their home readers on a regular basis and to borrow when it is their library week. Stage 1 Teachers Stage 2 Snippets

We hope that all mums had a fantastic day last Sunday. The weather was delightful and students were very excited to take home gifts and cards that they had prepared for their mums.

A big congratulations to all Year 3 students who completed NAPLAN Writing and Reading assessments this week. They are to be commended for their respectful and responsible approach to these assessments. Students persisted in completing NAPLAN and teachers were very proud of their mature approach to this part of their learning. NAPLAN will continue into Week 4 with Language Conventions on Monday and Numeracy on Tuesday. Year 3 students will need to ensure they have headphones to be able to complete assessments. Many thanks also to parents for their diligence in returning Be Skilled Be Fit notes and payments. It has been great to see students honing their skills in preparation for our Athletics Carnival at the end of this term. Thanks also go out to parents who enrolled their students in the 2020 OC selection process. Applications close on Friday 17th May 2019. Ballroom dancing lessons commenced this week in Stage 2. The program will continue to run throughout this term on Mondays. Stage 2 students need to wear sport clothes on Monday to ensure they can participate comfortably and safely.

In Week 3 and Week 4, Stage 2 students have been presenting speeches to classes for the Multicultural Public Speaking Competition. Stage 2 finals will be held in Week 5. We hope that you all have a happy and safe weekend!

Sports uniform is to be worn on Monday, Thursday (except 3A) and Friday.

Stage 2 Teachers

Stage 3 Snippets We are in the midst of another busy yet exciting term. We kicked off our exciting Science Unit, Food and Fibre, with a visit from Farmer Dave this week. Students enjoyed learning about our Aboriginal past to our sustainable farming future in the ‘living world’ through hands-on activities. During the week we also cut up vegetables to make a soup, looking at the origin of the ingredients and discussing packaging and the sustainability of farming these ingredients. Our soups were delicious! Stage 3 teachers are in the process of listening to students’ Multicultural Speeches and are extremely impressed with the calibre so far – it is going to be tough choosing our class finalists. A reminder that students’ history projects are due soon. For those students attending Ridges Cross Country, the permission note and payment should be in by now. If you have paid for your child to attend but have not yet sent in their permission note, please do so by Monday 20th May. Parents/Caregivers are welcome to come and cheer on their children on the day. It’s been wonderful watching year 5 and 6 students participate in the program ‘Be Skilled Be Fit’. We can see students developing and refining their skills in high jump already. Well done to all our year 5 students who have participated in NAPLAN this week. Irrespective of your results, we are proud of you!

Stage 3 Teachers

CHINESE Nǐmen hǎo! 你们 好! Thank you parents and students for attending our Chinese assemblies this term. Year 2 and Year 6 students have enjoyed showcasing the Gōng xǐ song and reciting the Hóng bāo poems.

This term, Kindergarten students have learnt how to introduce themselves to each other. They can confidently say Nǐ hǎo (hello), Wǒ jiào…(my name is…) and Zàijiàn (goodbye). Year 1 are continuing to work on their counting and also saying how old they are. Year 2 have begun learning the days of the week and months of the year so they can write the date in Chinese. Year 3 have started a new unit called Nǐ de shēngrì shì shénme shíhòu? (When is your birthday?). Year 6 have also started a new unit called Nǐ zhù zài nǎr? (Where do you live?). Looking forward to seeing how well students can express when their birthday is and share where they live. Miss Chong and Mrs Przyrembel – Chinese Teachers K-6 Buddhist Scripture Classes We are fortunate to have the opportunity to offer Buddhist Scripture classes to students at Ironbark Ridge. The classes commenced last Wednesday. If you filled out an expression of interest in Term 1 or would like your child to attend these classes you will need to fill out the SRE note on the school website under ‘Learning at our school / Religion and ethics’ and return this note to the school, as soon as possible. If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to ask. Mrs Pratt Scripture Co-ordinator

PSSA SPORT – TERM 2

STUDENTS PARTICIPATING IN PSSA TEAMS ARE REQUIRED TO BE AT SCHOOL ON FRIDAY MORNINGS BY 8.45AM FOR AN 8.50AM

SHARP DEPARTURE. IF STUDENTS DO NOT ARRIVE ON TIME THE BUS WILL NOT WAIT AND YOUR CHILD WILL NOT BE

PARTICIPATING IN PSSA ON THAT FRIDAY.

WEEK 4 24th May NO PSSA SPORT – RIDGES CROSS COUNTRY

WEEK 5 31st May BOYS SOCCER Schofields Park, Station Road, Schofields GIRLS SOCCER Caddies Creek Reserve, Milford Way, Kellyville NEWCOMBE BALL Ironbark Ridge Public School RUGBY LEAGUE Waite Reserve, Tamarind Drive, Acacia Gardens NETBALL Hills Centenary WEEK 6 7th June BOYS SOCCER Jonas Bradley, The Ponds Blvd, The Ponds GIRLS SOCCER Hills Centenary NEWCOMBE BALL Ironbark Ridge Public School RUGBY LEAGUE Waite Reserve, Tamarind Drive, Acacia Gardens NETBALL Hills Centenary

CANTEEN Our Winter menu is here! Check out the delicious home made soups to warm us up when we’re feeling chilly!

P & C

Ironbark Ridge Public School P&C Association 1 Ironbark Ridge Road, Rouse Hill NSW 2155 Telephone: 02 8814 5687 Fax: 02 8814 5698 Email: executive@irpspc.com

ABN : 13 563 185 237

Notice of P&C Committee Meeting 22 May 2019

All parents are welcome to attend the P&C meeting for Term 2 which will be held on 22 May at 7:00pm in the school library. Attending this meeting is a great opportunity to meet other parents and become involved in the school community at Ironbark Ridge Public School. It also provides an opportunity to gain valuable insight into what is happening at the school and what can be expected in the year ahead. The P&C committee currently has a Vice President’s position vacant. If you are interested in this role or joining the P&C come to the meeting next week. P&C Membership fee is $2 a year and we encourage you to join so that you can have a say in your school. All parents are welcome. We look forward to seeing you there.

Ironbark Ridge P&C Association would like to thank our

Platinum & MAJOR Fete Sponsor WEBSITE : www.skylinesolar.com.au

Ironbark Ridge P&C Association would like to thank our GOLD Fete Sponsors

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