Principal ’s Message

THE COMMUNICATOR

Jamisontown Public School

Thurwood Avenue, Jamisontown

Ph: 4733 2200, Fax: 4733 1555

Website: jamisonton-p.schools.nsw.edu.au Term 1 Welcome Back 7 February 2018

Welcome to the 2018 school year at Jamisontown Public School. A special welcome to all our new students and their families. We hope that you and your children will settle into our school quickly.

CLASSES 2016

We have formed 14 classes this year. This year our classes are colour names, instead of the initial of the teacher’s surname as we have had in the past. A little confusing to start with, but we are sure you will soon become more familiar with this. Teachers and classes are as follows:

Kindergarten Green Miss Moody

Kindergarten Red Mrs Wood

1/2 Green Mrs Sydney-Jones and Mrs Lukas

1/2 Blue Miss Lackenby

1/2 Red Mrs Dingley / Mrs Watson

1/2 Pink Mrs Keegan

1/2 Purple Mrs Lister

2/3 Yellow Miss Walker

3/4 Red Mrs Quirk

3/4 Purple Mrs Rhodes

3/4 Green Miss Farrugia

5/6 Red Mrs Gill

5/6 Green Mrs Carlin and Mr Lang

5/6 Purple Miss Kinman

Support staff Mrs O’Brien, Mrs Watson, Mrs Reynolds,

Mrs Denny, Mrs Apap

Creative Arts Mrs Tapuska

Library Mrs Jones and Mr Lang

Office Staff Mrs Finn, Mrs Houssenloge, Mrs Dekruif

TEXTBOOKS FOR 2018

Students will be beginning to work in their textbooks from next week. If you have not ordered your child’s textbooks from Dominie, it is important that you do as soon as possible. You will need to ring Dominie on 9938 8686 to order and pay for your child’s book. It is important that every child has their own textbook as these supplement work studied in the classroom.

PARENT CONCERNS

From time to time parents may have concerns or questions regarding their own child or children. This is completely natural and, at times, expected. For parents to best satisfy their curiosity or to gain correct information concerning an alleged incident or occurrence, we suggest you follow the procedure below:

speak with your child honestly;

make an appointment to speak with your child’s teacher;

if required, make an appointment to see Mrs Segula; then

speak with your child again.

The best people to help are those of us who are involved with your child at school. Social networking sites cannot solve problems or issues your child is having at school. Sometimes information is posted on social networking sites, prior to any discussions parents have with the school, and therefore only presents one point of view. It would be greatly appreciated if you follow the above procedure so as to ascertain both points of view as this usually solves most issues which arise.

STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

As you would be aware we have a number of students enrolled who have severe life-threatening allergic reactions to a variety of foods. These foods include nuts, peanuts, products of nuts and peanuts, dairy, eggs and some fruits. Some of the students could have an allergic or life threatening anaphylactic reaction without even eating the food, but simply by breathing the air borne particles. Staff have put many procedures in place to try to provide a safe environment for all these students.

SCHOOL SWIMMING CARNIVAL

The 2018 school swimming carnival for students in Years 3-6 is to be held tomorrow, Thursday 8 February 2018 between 6:00pm and 8:00pm at Glenbrook Swimming Centre. This is to be a Twilight Meet and will only be for the students who are able to confidently swim 50m or further. Parents will need to attend with their child/ren and take responsibility for them during the carnival hours. Parents will need to pay entry at the gate for themselves and their children.

CLOSING DATE REMINDERS

TERM 1

Fri 16 Feb $14.00 School Magazines (Yrs 3-6)

Fri 23 Feb $60.00 Yr 6 Jacket

Payments can be made via the front office on Tuesday or Friday mornings, our Skoolbag App or Online banking is now available via our school website at: www.jamisonton-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

~ Please note all monies must be paid by 3pm on the due date ~

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

TERM 1

Wed 7 Feb 7 pm P&C Meeting

Thurs 8 Feb 6 pm – 8 pm Years 3-6 Swimming Carnival

Mon 12 Feb 4 pm Kindergarten Parent Information Session

Principal ’s Message Cont…..

MORNING ASSEMBLIES

Each morning when the 8.55 bell rings, students line up under the front COLA. It is our expectation that students are attentive during all assemblies, including morning assemblies. This is a time for announcements and reminders and it is important that students hear and understand all messages given. On Mondays, some awards are presented and parents are most welcome to stay for this, however once this is finished, we ask parents to move away from the assembly area so we can conduct our assembly without background talking and pre-schoolers. This will encourage the students to line up quickly and quietly as well as to allow our school day to start in an orderly manner. We appreciate your co-operation. If you are helping in a classroom, please make your way to that classroom and await the class’ arrival following our assembly.

PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS

Thank you to all our parents who attended the recent Parent Information sessions. We hope you gained a great deal of knowledge about your child’s year at school. The Kindergarten parent Information Session is to be held on Monday 12 February from 4.00pm in the Kindergarten classrooms. Parent Teacher Interviews will be held later in term 1, at this time you can discuss your child individually with his/her teacher.

P&C MEETING

The first P&C meeting for 2018 is to be held tonight beginning at 7.00pm in the staffroom. We invite all parents to come along, both regular attendees as well as any new parents to our school. The P&C meeting is an excellent way for parents to meet other parents and many opportunities are provided for you, as parents, to support your child’s school.

NO DOGS IN THE PLAYGROUND

When visiting the school or picking up your children we ask that you do not bring your dog/s into the playground, even on a lead. With so many children making noise and running around, some dogs may be unpredictable in this situation. For everyone’s safety, please stay outside the school grounds with your dog.

ALLERGIES / BIRTHDAY CAKES

When students bring birthday cakes to school, to share, there is a slight risk that some students may have an allergic reaction to some product in the cake, even if they do not eat it. As a result of this we ask that parents do not send birthday cakes, or lollies, to share to school. We understand that this has been a way for students to celebrate their birthday with their friends; however we must make our school safe for all students. We appreciate your understanding of this decision.

ROAD SAFETY - BIKE RIDING

It is most important that if your child rides his/her bike or scooter to and from school that they observe all road rules. All safety precautions should be in place including an approved helmet and your child should take the safest travel path to and from school. Sometimes children think it is clever or fun to play “chicken” with the cars as they are riding their bike. Unfortunately this can lead to serious injury or worse. Please talk with your child about road safety and the hazards they may face whilst riding their bike to and from school as well as on weekends and after school. We all need to keep our children safe, but the children themselves have to realise potential danger to try to prevent it from happening.

When your child

misses just…… That equals…… Which is…….

And therefore, from Kindy

to Year 12, that is…….

10 minutes a day 50 minutes of

learning each week

Nearly 1 1/2

weeks per year

Nearly 1/2 a

year of school

20 minutes a day 1 hour and 40 minutes of

learning each week

Nearly 2 1/2

weeks per year Nearly a year of school

1/2 hour a day 1/2 a day of learning a

week 4 weeks a year

Nearly 1 1/2 years

of learning

1 hour each day 1 whole day of learning

each week

8 weeks per year or nearly

a term a year

Over 2 1/2 years

of learning

EVERY MINUTE COUNTS……

School starts at 8:55am - Its important to be on time!

Important Changes to App Payments ALL App payments will now need to be made via the ‘NSW Westpac Payment

Gateway’ link that can be found on the main dashboard of our App or School

website.

You will be issued with a payment receipt number which you will then need

to include when filling in and returning permission notes.

Please note that the same rule applies and all payments will still need to be

made by 3pm on the due date otherwise monies will be refunded back into

your account.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Have you moved house, changed your

home, work or mobile phone numbers?

If so, have you let the office know of

your new details? It is extremely

important that we have correct and

current contact details for every child.

It is also necessary to have correct

emergency contact names and

numbers up to date. Please contact the

office to advise of these changes as

soon as possible.

Welcome to School Banking 2018!

Our school banking will resume tomorrow, Thursday 8 February 2018

and we have some great prizes on offer.

All you need to do to claim one of these great prizes is collect 10 tokens and redeem them along with your token coupon which was given out in class at the beginning of the year. If you misplace your coupons, parents can go online to: www.Commbank.com.au/schoolbanking and print out extra coupons.

Your school banking co-ordinator also has a record of how many tokens each child has registered on computer just in case any go missing. Remember, pooling of tokens between siblings and friends is not permitted as rewards are based on individual saving achievements.

~ Our school banking day is THURSDAY ~

Parents, carers and students are not permitted to use the driveway entrance, nor are they allowed to enter this car park. There are cars & delivery trucks entering and leaving the car park throughout different times of the day so this is not a safe thoroughfare for students to be using.

The pedestrian entrance is located just a few metres further along Thurwood Avenue. This is the entrance students and families are to utilise.

In the interest of our whole school community we would also like to remind all drivers to please take care when driving in and around our school, especially during our drop -off and pick-up times.