Dundurrabin Public School Newsletter Term 1, Week 2, 2024

Principal's Message

Welcome Back!

It was smiles all round at school last week as the 2024 school year kicked off in full swing. I welcome all students and families back to school for a new year of learning and adventures together. 

It is our pleasure to welcome Beth and Lachie into Kindergarten. We are pleased with their positive start and are excited to have them join us.

2024 Teachers and Support Staff

This year we continue with the same happy faces as in 2023. 

Teaching Principal: Leah Keough

K-2 Teachers: Katrina Sangster (Tuesday-Friday) and Christopher Williamson (Monday)

3-6 Teacher: Natalie McNeill

Part-time teaching staff: Christopher Williamson and Jo Cunningham

School Learning Support Officers: Katherine Sangster and Suzanne Tompkins

School Admin Manager: Melissa Harrison

Grounds Assistants: Chris Meehan and Glenn McKnight

An impressive team to support our learning adventures together.

P&C Fence Completion

Thank you to our P&C committee for their fencing efforts. The final leg of the school boundary fence was completed during the holiday break- it looks fantastic. We acknowledge the greal deal of fundraising, planning and effort this project has required and are very grateful of this support. 

Daily Breakfast at School

This term will see the introduction of daily breakfast at school. Thanks to Foodbank NSW, we now have access to free breakfast food items for all students to enjoy. Depending on stock and supply, students may choose from cereals, toast and spreads, fruit cups, breakfast bars and milk drinks. Breakfast will be available each day from 8:50am.

Thank you

Our sincere thanks to Mrs Sangster, Laz, Chris and Glenn for their care of our school, grounds, gardens and chickens over the holiday period. The school looked swish for our return last week. 

Leah Keough

Every Day Counts

Please remember to explain all days away from school. This can be done in person, by phoning the school or sending a text to the school mobile: 0411 939 188.

What's on for Term 1

• Friday 9 February- Small Schools Swimming Carnival at Bellingen Pool
• Monday 12 February - AGM and P&C Meeting - 3.30pm
• Tuesday 20 to Thursday 22 February- Three-way Parent/Student/Teacher meetings at school
• Thursday 29 February- Preschool Afternoon from 1:30pm
• Friday 1 March- Clean Up Schools Day
• Wednesday 13 March- Ride2School Day
• Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March- NAPLAN Test Window
• Friday 22 March- Harmony Day Lunch at School
• Thursday 4 April- Preschool Afternoon from 1:30pm
• Thursday 11 April- Term 1 Assembly

Consent Notes to be Returned

• Parent/ Teacher / Student Interview Form
• Permission to Publish Consent
• Variation to School Routine Consent
• Third Party Software Consent

Hi, it’s great to meet you!

As we kick off a new school year I would like to introduce myself to our new parents, carers and school community members. My name is Emily Bingle and I am the Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction here at Dundurrabin Public School, as well as Dorrigo and Hernani Public Schools.

My role involves working alongside students and staff to implement evidence-based strategies to achieve the best educational outcomes for all of our students, particularly in literacy and numeracy. I am passionate about our small schools and meeting the needs of every student who walks through our gates every morning.

I believe communication is the key to success, so please feel free to contact myself or the school if you have any questions around your child’s education.

Curriculum Reform Information

Best Start Kindergarten Assessment

The Best Start Kindergarten Assessment will take place at our school early this term. This is a state-wide assessment that helps show teachers the literacy and numeracy skills of each student at the beginning of Kindergarten. This helps teachers to plan lessons to best support the learning needs of every child.

Children come to school with a range of experiences, skills and abilities. Some are familiar with books, can recognise letters of the alphabet or even write their name or count to ten, while others have not yet learned these skills.

The Best Start Kindergarten Assessment provides teachers with the opportunity to sit with a child one on one, focusing on what that child can do. The assessment is not a test but provides teachers with useful information to help support your child’s learning at school.

If you have any questions or you wish to withdraw your child from participating in the assessment, please contact the school.

NAPLAN 2024

Students in Years 3 and 5 will complete the NAPLAN assessments later this term between Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March. NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through their regular school curriculum with results informing school priorities. Parents are encouraged to contact the school if they have any questions. 

Small Schools Swimming Carnival – Friday 9 February

The Small Schools Swimming Carnival will be held Friday 9 February at Bellingen Pool commencing at 9.15am and finishing approx. 1.30pm.

Only students from 8 years of age and capable of swimming 25 metres are eligible to compete.

School will run as normal for students not attending.

Your support will be necessary for the Swimming Carnival by providing parental transport. Miss McNeill will be attending the carnival with participating students. Students and spectators must pay an entry fee to the pool on the day. If you are unable to transport your child/ren for the carnival, please organise someone else and please notify the school of your decision on the permission note.

Please see Mrs Keough for a permission note if your child is going to attend. 

Variation of School Routine, Media and Online Consents

Permission to Publish and Variation to School Routine permission notes were sent home with your children today. These allow students to walk to venues around the Dundurrabin village for school activities throughout the year and to have their image or work published digitally such as on our school website or Facebook. Please return the signed consents to school by Thursday.

Three Way Parent / Teacher / Student Interviews

We will be holding our Parent / Teacher / Students meetings starting on Tuesday 20 February to Thursday 22 February. We would love to meet with each learner and their parents/carers. Meetings usually only take 15 minutes. An interview form has been sent home with your child/ren today, please fill it out with your preferred timeslot and return to it school. 

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden News

Week 1 

In gardening this week we worked on new place cards for setting the tables, using a wood burner. We also began making a cover for our gardening group activities. 

We harvested curly kale, silverbeet, shallots, zucchinis, capsicum, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, herbs and eggs.

In the kitchen, 3-6 made zucchini slice, pide bread, strained yogurt with cucumber, garlic and mint (cacik), kisir cous cous salad, and gigantes (beans) with tomatoes and greens.

Cooking Award: Congratulations to Jack Duckett for showing maturity in all areas during cooking. 

School Reminders

Library
Library is on Fridays this year. Students can bring their books in their library bags each Friday and borrow new ones for the week. New students will be  supplied with a library bag to use.

Fruit Break and Water Bottles
To ensure students are not hungry during the morning session we have a ‘fruit/veggie break’. Children are encouraged to bring a piece of fruit, vegetable or a small container of cut up fruit and/or vegetables. Each student should also have a labelled water bottle for daily use at school, in the classroom and on excursions.

School Times
Teachers commence playground duty from 8.45am. Students are encouraged not to arrive before this
time, but if an earlier drop off time is needed this can be organised on occasion if you speak with Mrs
Keough. Our timetable is below:

• Morning play - 8:45am – 9:15am
  
• School starts / Assembly - 9:15am
  
• Fruit break - 10:20am
  
• Recess - 11:20am – 12 noon
  
• Lunch - 1:30pm – 2:00pm
  
• School finishes - 3.15pm 
  

Representative Trials – Soccer / Football / Tennis /Cricket etc….

A number of opportunities are available in a variety of sports for talented students to represent the Mid
North Coast. If you are interested in your Year 5 or 6 child attending any of these trial events please let
Mrs Keough or Melissa know. 

Update Driver and Registration Details for 2024

If you are transporting your child/ren or any other students for excursions, sporting events etc.… the principal must sight your current driver licence, vehicle registration details and comprehensive insurance details. If you have not updated this travel information from previous years, please come into school soon and we can record your details for 2024. Under the current working with children requirements, all parents who drive other students or volunteer in any capacity at the school need to fill in a form and provide 100 points of ID, or have a WWCC. See Mrs Keough or Melissa for further information.

Student Travel Subsidy

Do you need to drive your children to a school bus stop or school each day? There is a government subsidy available for those students who meet the age and distance criteria. To see if you’re eligible, and to apply online, visit www.transport.nsw.gov.au/school/schooldrive For parents who have a student already claiming subsidy, please remember to log on to the site and update your child’s yearly details. If you do not, it could interfere with your payments.

Bus Travel Procedure

All bus travel applications are now online. To update your child/rens details, go to www.transport.nsw.gov.au/ssts/updatedetails    For more information, call 131500. 

2024 Learning Contributions

Learning Contributions for 2024 remain the same - $30.00 for the costs of student items provided by our school and $40.00 towards SAKG program which has ongoing costs each week, such as cooking ingredients, seeds and seedlings. Thank you to those families who have already paid.

Preschool Afternoons

P&C News and Community News

A warm welcome from our P&C President

I hope everyone enjoyed the break from routine and are looking forward to another year as part of our Dundurrabin PS family.

For the P and C it means we will continue to care for and enhance the school and students in any way we can. We hope that parents and friends of the school continue to support us in our aspirations and goals. We encourage everybody to be a part of our P and C team in deciding what these goals are, and how we can achieve them.

Not everybody was relaxing in the sun over the holidays because the school fence was finally completed and paid for by us! This important project has been hampered by Covid, fires, lack of volunteers and busy contractors. A huge thank you to Susie who facilitated this along the way to completion.

I am extremely proud of our ex-students achievements, at the High School Awards Day at the end of last year. Cooper, Jarvis, Joseph and Isabelle received awards, Lucas completed his HSC. At the Bellingen Shire Council Community Awards Day in January, Tyson and Jarvis were award recipients in the Rising Stars category. Orli has just embarked on a 12- month exchange program in Belgium, on the other side of the world to where she and Wren now live in Tasmania. At the Dorrigo Show, Isabelle was named Teen Young Woman of the Year. I hear this to be a wonderful experience and wish her well as she progresses in this and Mrs Keough's daughter was named the Junior Young woman. I hope they get a crown but I’m guessing they are passe.

Congratulations to all of them. It just goes to show again that Dundurrabin School may be small, but we do pretty well out there in the big world.

We will miss some students this year but can’t wait to get to know the new ones and their families. Our AGM will be coming up in 1st Term. I look forward to seeing the usual faces and some new.

Leonie

P&C Christmas Raffle

A big thank you to everyone who helped contribute towards the raffle and to all the businesses that provided vouchers and gift cards. 

Notice of AGM and P&C Meeting Monday 12 February, 2024 - 3.30pm

Notice of AGM Meeting for Dundurrabin Public School P&C – Monday 12 February - 3.30pm

Our P&C AGM will be held on Monday 12 February at 3.30pm. Everyone is welcome and  encouraged to attend. All positions Vacant. Membership costs $2 and will need to be paid before the AGM to allow you to vote.

This will be followed by our first P&C Meeting for 2024. We would like to have as many people as possible attend. This is a wonderful opportunity to find out about and get involved with what is happening within the school. Please come along and enjoy a relaxed friendly gathering. 

Clean Up Australia Day 2024

Clean Up Australia Day is on Sunday 3 March. If you would like to get involved, please meet at the Dundurrabin Community Centre or the Tyringham Shop at 9:30am. Please call Leonie on 0413158466 with enquiries.