Passfield Park School

Diary Dates………. 25&26/11 School Spectacular 25/11 White Day 3/12 High school formal 7/12 Presentation Day 16/12 Last day of Term 4 for students

Dear Parents and Carers

Celebration Day What an amazing turn out we had for Celebration Day! I don‘t think I have ever seen so many people here at Passfield Park School, and to quote the social/music pages of the media, the amphitheatre went off during the sing-along. Sincere thanks to all the staff who worked so hard to produce some outstanding artworks with the students. The community at Passfield Park School always rises to the challenge, and I think Celebration Day showed us all at our best. Sincere thanks. It was just a shame that Keryn Morrison was unable to attend on the day as she has been such a big part of the school‘s history.

Aboriginal Student Achievement Awards On the evening of November 9, 2011, Alison D, Michele and I attended the ‗Rising Stars‘ award night for Aboriginal students in South Western Sydney. We joined with McCallum‘s family to celebrate his outstanding achievements in literacy this year. McCallum received a medal and certificate to recognise his application to reading. Well done, McCallum!

MacCallum with his mother, Charlene at the awards.

Director’s Choice On Thursday evening (10/11), I continued my rounds of celebration by attending the Director‘s Choice awards, where Daniel M officiated in his role as a Regional Ambassador for South Western Sydney. Daniel has done an amazing job this year, attending events to represent our school, school group and the region. He has participated in discussions concerning the direction of school policy and has been an absolute credit to himself, his family, and his school. Congratulation's, Daniel. Wait, there‘s more!

November 7 2011

McDonald‘s in Macarthur is proud to support local schools through the McDonald‘s Encouragement Awards.

School Spectacular November 25th and 26th is almost upon us – the stu-dents performing in the city at the Schools Spectac-ular are rehearsing with other schools and during music lessons, in readiness for their big days. We are all very excited at this amazing opportunity and big thanks to Alison S, Kris B and Kris W for their hard work in supervising the students.

End of term The end of term is fast approaching. Presentation day is almost here – please keep looking for notes to keep up with events.

Julie

This term in cooking, Silver Class has been making pancakes. We add water to the shaker pancake bottle and each have a turn shaking it. While Sha-ron is cooking the pancakes, the students help to set their place at the table. When the pancakes are ready, each student chooses a topping. Honey and jam have been popular toppings. With help the stu-dents spread their topping over their pancake. We practise our manners by using ‗help‘ and ‗thank you‘.

Sarah and Sharon

Pancake day in Silver Class

Passfield Park School celebrates 30 years

We celebrated 30 years of education at Passfield Park School on October 20, 2011 by holding an art show and sing-along. Par-ents, ex parents, staff, students and special guests helped to make the celebration a day to remember. Alison Seckold and Sonia Clis-sold, as longest serving staff members, un-veiled a wall of tiles painted by each student. Unfortunately, Mrs Morrison was not able to attend due to ill health. The school opened on September 26, 1981 with 32 students and 10 staff members. Over the years, the school has grown to 63 stu-dents with around 25 staff members. Pam Burian, an original teacher, attended and was happy that some of the programs she began, such as personal hygiene still oper-ate today. Peter Phelps, our school education director,

drew the lucky ticket for a holiday at foster

which was won by the Mills family. To end

the day, all guests, students and staff joined

in a ―Celebrate Good Times‖ sing-along

finale.

This term started with camp at Teen Ranch where we had loads of fun. Crate climbing was a challenge—some students even managed to touch the roof. The giant swing was scary but everyone had a turn. Jessica, Daniel, Shada and Andrew were very brave and went right to the top. The rest of us had to pull them up—it was hard work. In canoeing we played sharks and sardines—Shada and Daniel were the sharks and they caught us all. In bush cooking, we made damper and ate it with golden syrup—yum! We also enjoyed horse-riding, swimming, archery and a hike. Everyone worked up an appetite for the delicious food with all the fresh air and activities. In Week 2 we joined in the celebrations for our school‘s

30th anniversary, completing some fantastic artworks. It was lovely to catch up with some past staff, students and parents. Last week we saw a wonderful performance of I, Bunyip at Campbelltown Arts Centre. Shada was chosen to take part in the performance and she disappeared for a short while—but thankfully she came back. In Cooking we are making sandwiches and milkshakes. For Sport we are swimming at Eagle Vale pool and we have been practising for the carnival next week. We are also looking forward to the Schools Spectacular and the Formal in a few weeks time.

Alison and Jan

Pink Class is going to Yotala Gymnastics Club for sport this term. Although we have only been a few times, there is already a noticeable improvement in students‘ ability to perform the gross motor activities participated in each week. Students enjoy the warm up to music as they stretch and warm up their mus-cles. Cassandra and Kaley can walk along the bal-ance beam without assistance. Rebecca can walk along the balance beam with assistance from an adult on both sides. Cassandra loves to climb to the very top of the wall ladder. With assistance, Ben is eager to climb about a third of the way up the wall ladder. Students are improving at following instruc-tions and waiting for their turn.

In our cooking sessions, we are preparing lunches. We have used a variety of fillings on a variety of crackers. Crustkits and Saos are the most liked crackers and sliced deli chicken and cheese are the favourite fillings. Independently or with minimal assis-tance, most students can now pour their own cordial from a small jug containing only a small amount of cordial. With Christmas fast approaching, we have started listening to Christmas music and will soon start mak-ing Christmas decorations.

Cheryl, Tara and Jeanette

Little Gymnasts in Pink Class

Happy Campers in Purple Class

Blue class is enjoying developing creative aspects of their personalities. We have engaged in making art work exploring the use of different media. Some of us dabbled in acrylic paint while others preferred cutting and pasting textured paper to make their art piece. For our class performance on Wednesday in Week 2, we chose to sing a song about a visit to the doctor. All students sang a verse for different parts of the body, adding sound effects for each one. The speech rhythm was really good fun to perform. For sport, Blue class is swimming this term. All students are loving being in the water in this warm weather. Aimee is like a fish and is reluctant to come out at the end of the session. We are practising for the school swimming carnival with kick boards, hoops and noodles. Ball scramble is an event that every one is very enthusiastic about and keen to win. Blue class is enjoying cooking summer food, cool fruit salads with a dollop of ice cream and fruit jelly. We are practising our cutting, measuring and pouring skills. Most of the students can now pour with steady hands and not spill at all. Blue class will soon start to cook Christmas recipes, make decorations, sing ‘ six white boomers‘ and read Australian Christmas stories.

Sukhraj and Kris

Great Gymnastics from Orange class

Blue Class going swimmingly

For sport this term, Blue class is attending Yotala

Gym for gymnastics. All students are having lots of

fun and particularly enjoy the music and actions of

their warm up activity where they are prompted by the

words in the song to jump up and spin round. There

are always plenty of smiles to be seen as they

enthusiastically climb, crawl, roll, jump and swing.

Each week the students get to try out their skills on a

variety of equipment. Everyone does their best to

watch, listen and follow directions and we are very

proud of their efforts and achievements.

Di, Sonia and Kalisi

Sailing the sea with Red Class Red class had a great time sailing in week 2. The weather was perfect and everyone had a turn of steering the yacht. We met the founder of Sailors with DisAbilities David and had a great time up the front of the yacht watching the sights of Sydney harbour.

During Term 4 for our sport, White class is enjoying leisure activities at Eaglevale pool. The students are practising the skills learned earlier in the year during our special swimming scheme. Brooke and Keeghan enjoy swimming under water; Ben enjoys watching the movement of water; Farabi likes to walk up and down the pool; and Denae and Jeremy utilise the various flotation devis-es.

We welcome back Zane who has enjoyed a ten week holiday to Lebanon. Zane was able to tell us he enjoyed his holiday and that he travelled by plane.

For the first part of this term, we are making toast and revising our spreading skills. The class is also coring and cut-ting an apple into a spiral using an apple slinky ma-chine as well as making milkshakes using the milkshake maker.

White Class cooking in the kitchen

A day at the farm for Yellow Class

Yellow Class had a great day visiting Calmsley City Farm at Fairfield. Not all the students liked the ani-mals. Our modern city girl, Leiatia was unimpressed with the animals but really loved the tractor ride. Mahib loved feeding the lambs and kids in the baby section. McCallum and Dyllan tried their skills at cracking the whip. Dyllan, McCallum and Connor tried to milk the

cow. We were all interested in watching the sheepdogs and the sheep shearing. As well as the farm animals we saw some Australian native ani-mals. Mahib was fascinated with the kangaroo‘s tail. Connor loved the peacocks.

A tired and happy group returned to school. Alison & Michele

Green class enjoy lots !

Olena and Kristine

For sport this term, Green class is enjoying water therapy with swimming sessions at Eagle Vale pool. We take the opportunity to enjoy the water, practise our swimming skills and play games with balls, hoops and noodles.

Thant will soon be celebrating his 18th birthday and Green class has invited Red class to join them for a celebration BBQ and picnic in the park across the road from school. We will be having the birthday picnic on Friday, 25th November. Thank you all for your continued support of our canteen program. We have raised over $150 so far this year which will be spent on a special day for the students before the end of the year – watch this space! Mat and Narelle

Congratulations to our students of the week