Staffing

This term has seen a few changes to staffing at Tamworth West PS.

Firstly, we congratulate Miss Stevie-Lee Sutherland on her permanent appointment to Westdale PS. Miss Sutherland started her appointment at the beginning of this term and we were fortunate to be able to replace her with Ms Dee Burns. Ms Burns has been working with the students in 1S throughout the year and has been able to maintain the teaching and learning program with minimal disruption.

At the end of last term, we also said goodbye to Ms Jane Baker. Ms Baker has accepted a position at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School. As a result, we have a new member of staff in our front office. Ms Ashlee Sephton has joined us and is fitting in beautifully.

We welcome Mrs Kim Wilson to Tamworth West PS. Mrs Wilson is working with 3-6S and is doing a remarkable job.

We also welcome Mr Tom Patterson to Tamworth West PS. Mr Patterson is a School Learning Support Officer and is working with some targeted students across the school.

Curriculum and Policy Monitoring (CPM)

The Department of Education uses a range of internal processes to monitor curriculum and policy implementation in schools.

These processes give the department, as a system, assurance that all schools are meeting the minimum requirements for the registration of government schools.

All schools must understand the links between the Education Act and the policy, Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K-12 Policy, and the Registration manual for the government schooling system.

CPM meetings allow the department to meet its requirement to monitor policy and curriculum implementation compliance, and:

• help ensure the implementation of policy and curriculum in schools

• locate externally mandated compliance within a school improvement context

• provide opportunities for professional dialogue and sharing amongst schools

• reinforce a culture which demonstrates quality internal assurance processes at all levels

• ensure that student learning and well-being remains at the centre of schools.

This year, Tamworth West PS has been selected to participate in a CPM meeting.

We have been paired with Oxley Vale PS to participate in a guided discussion which will be led by a trained facilitator and assisted by a subject matter expert (SME). Our Director, Educational Leadership, Ms Ruythe Dufty, will host the meeting and provide advice and feedback when needed.

As part of the discussion, we have to present evidence that demonstrates we have met minimum requirement. Our evidence is drawn from the everyday operation of our school and the scheduled discussion will allow us to present our evidence.

Our CPM meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 10 August 2021 and will focus on Stage 3 HSIE for curriculum and the policy area of ‘Safe and supportive environment’, which incorporates child protection and student welfare. During our meeting we will concentrate on:

· compliance based on evidence

· best practice and School Excellence.

A CPM summary report will be produced as a record of the meeting. It will include a record of the evidence presented and the professional discussion which takes place. Ms Dufty will follow up any next steps, if necessary, and finalise the report.

The purpose of the CPM summary report is for school improvement and not performance management.

I will be sure to update you on the results of this meeting in our next newsletter.

Student Enrolments for 2022

Tamworth West PS is currently accepting local enrolment applications for all grades for 2022. Based on current anticipated numbers, we have declined a number of non-local applications. This is because we are currently approaching capacity and through policy, the Department has stated that no additional accommodation (permanent or demountable) will be provided by the DoE to cater for increased enrolments resulting from non-local placements.

Anyone is entitled to submit an enrolment application and at Tamworth West PS, we have a placement panel that considers and makes recommendations on all non-local enrolment applications. The criteria that is considered for non-local applications includes:

• Siblings eg. Other sibling, in residence with the student, already enrolled in a mainstream class at Tamworth West PS

• Safety and supervision eg. Care for the student before and after school

• Proximity and access to the school eg. Distance between home and school

• Compassionate eg. Case for supporting enrolment at the school

There are two very important things to note in relation to these criteria:

• Firstly, parents and carers are advised that although the use of the sibling’s criteria has been given higher priority in the past, while ever we are at, or over, capacity, this WILL NOT guarantee enrolment of non-local students even if siblings are already enrolled at Tamworth West PS.

• Secondly, at Tamworth West PS the sibling criteria does not extend to students enrolled in any of our specialist support classes. This is because, although we house three support classes at Tamworth West PS, they are regional resources and students are enrolled into these classes through the Tamworth Office. Siblings of students enrolled in support classes are able to attend their local school.

The P&C has been busy in the background as per usual. We have made a $5000 donation to the school to purchase some new outdoor furniture which arrived in the school holidays and has already been assembled by Peter (the school maintenance man). They look awesome and will make a huge difference to the students' meal times.

We are hoping to hold our Fathers Day stall again this year (COVID rules permitting) and have already purchased the gifts. Fingers crossed we are able to.

The preloved uniform pool is still running. Look out on our Facebook page to see what is available. If you are after anything specifically, please ask at the office and they will pass on your details to me.

A huge thank you once again to all of those families who have donated uniforms. The monies raised go back into our school.

Our next meeting is on Monday, 9 August at 5.30pm.

Stay safe everyone!

Jacki Galvin

President

P&C Committee

Congratulations to our latest

PBL raffle winners!

PRIMARY CLASS AWARDS - Term 2 Week 7 - Term 3 Week 2

In Maths this term, we have started learning how to tell the time using o’clock. We have had fun making our own clocks, making a very large human clock, playing ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf?” and learning how to record the hour, on a digital and analog clock.

Reading Folders and Homework

Students in Year 1 and 2 have a reading folder that is changed daily Monday - Thursday. These levelled readers are at the level for your child to consolidate their reading skills. Readers can be kept for a night or a couple of nights depending on how you choose to use them at home. Some students are also reading other books at home. Please add these into their reading logs so the teachers can get a clear indication of how much your child is reading at home.

See our amazing work!

Here are some examples of some beautiful handwriting going on across the stage.

Procedure Writing

We have begun our new unit in literacy on procedure writing. Year 2 had a lovely time getting Mr Taggart to dress up in his best dress-up outfit and we discovered the importance of giving instructions in the right sequence to get the task done effectively. We think that Mr Taggart looks great in his new dress-up outfit!

Smiling Minds

Stage 1 has been exploring the benefits of mindfulness by engaging with the smiling minds program. Here is 1B doing some meditation in the glorious winter sun.

Resilience Project

Stage 1 has been loving the activities we have been completing in the Resilience project. We have been focussing on empathy and gratitude. Here is some of the work we have done.

Stage 2 was also booked in to attend a NAIDOC excursion with Lenny Waters, visiting the Marsupial Park, walking to the observatory and having a look inside. Due to the bad weather the excursion was postponed to this term, however we are waiting patiently for COVID restrictions to lift so we can do this. Stay tuned!

The athletics carnival is on Thursday, 5 August. Notes have been sent home and should have been returned. The school expectation is that ALL students attend the carnival. There will be a mixture of both novelty and competitive events on which means that even if students are not competing in the events, there will be other activities to participate in. Our students have been practising their athletic skills at school and I look forward to seeing them put into action!

It is important that students are at school each day and on time. If your child is away, you need to contact either the office or your classroom teacher directly. Texting the classroom teacher is a quick and easy way to let the teacher know that your child is away and the reason why. We have a number of great initiatives coming up to help encourage students to come to school on time.

Due to the COVID lock down we are still unsure of whether the Sydney excursion will go ahead. I have put the payments on hold until we receive more information. We are hoping to have a one night sleepover in the school hall as a ‘practice’ run.

The stage 2 teachers look forward to continuing to work with you this term.

Felicity Bagshaw

Wonderful Winter!

This term the students in K3M are learning about the amazing season – winter. We are exploring different aspects of winter like - how do animals cope in the cold weather, what happens in our gardens during the winter months and what do we do differently in during these cold days and nights? Our unit of work includes researching and writing information reports on Aussie animals. We will be studying the echidna, a curious little animal and our favourite, the wombat! We have been reading the ‘Snow Wombat’ a story about a cute little wombat’s travels through the high country and the different animals and people he meets along the way.

3-6D and 3-6S

This term the students in 3-6D and 3-6S have settled beautifully into their learning activities. Stage 2 are learning about First Contacts in history and Stage 3 are studying the super continent Pangaea in geography. Work continues to develop math skills in number patterns, fractions and problem solving. Students continue to develop their whole number skills and the ability to work with word problems.

All students have been learning how to sequence a series of events to support their reading and writing skills. Everyone has been working well during explicit writing lessons to examine journal entries. They are learning to identify the vocabulary and structure of this type of writing. Students had fun pretending they were a chicken in an egg and writing a diary entry from life inside the shell!

The Personal Development, Health and Physical Education focus for this term surrounds the development of a wide range of sports and movement skills. All students are looking forward to the upcoming athletics carnival.

We are anticipating another action-packed term.

Willow Tree Horse Sports

Sadly, the organising committee have made the decision to cancel this year's event. The committee are eager to have the event continue in 2022.

North West Cross Country Trials

Both Jaxon Syron and Cooper-Lee Shaw braved the bitter winter weather at the North West Cross Country Trials held at Coolah on Thursday, 10 June. Both boys were representing Tamworth Zone against the best long-distance runners in the region. Both boys did extremely well in the freezing, wet conditions. Jaxon Syron finished 10^th overall in the 12/13-year boys, whilst Cooper-Lee Shaw finished 16th in the 11-year boys age group. Congratulations to Jaxon and Cooper-Lee!

Tamworth Zone PSSA Trials

Travis Mumford and Cooper-Lee Shaw were recently selected into the Tamworth Zone team to attend the North West trials in softball. Both boys were identified at the boys' softball gala day and chosen to attend the regional trials. Whilst neither student was selected into the North West team, both boys are in Year 5, and now have more experience at a regional level. Congratulations to Travis and Cooper-Lee!

Maddison Mason also attended the North West netball trials after being selected to represent the Tamworth Zone netball team. Maddison performed well at the trials and although she was not selected to represent the North West team, she should be proud of her achievement, trialling with many exceptionally talented athletes from across the region. Well done, Maddi!

The students would like to thank all the staff who came to support the students in their grand finals. A big thank you also to Mrs McInnes and Ben Pearce for giving up their time with Mr Willis to train and coach the players.

Congratulations to all teams and we look forward to watching our teams improve in the new season next semester.

If there are any 3/4 girls interested in playing, we do have spots available. Please speak to Mrs McInnes or Mr Willis.

Mr Willis

Sports Organiser