School Development Day

This term began with a School Development Day. Our focus areas for the day included:

• Staff wellbeing

• 2021-2024 School Improvement Plan

• Analysis of Check-in Assessments for Reading

• Virtual training in CARS & STARS (comprehension program)

• Stage planning for improved comprehension results

• Analysis of Check-in Assessments for Numeracy

• Focus areas for term 2

On Tuesday afternoon of Week 1, we were then very fortunate to work with Michelle Hutchison, the developer of SMART Spelling. Michelle shared her vast knowledge and amazing experience in the teaching of spelling and all staff walked away better for having spent the afternoon with her.

It was very interesting to hear Michelle speak of the science behind learning to spell and how the brain works in relation to this.

It is also very important that as mums, dads, carers and family members, you understand that students do not need an extensive list of words each week to learn how to spell. In fact, Michelle’s advice was to start with six words and really concentrate on the patterns.

We were provided with some really interesting food for thought!

2021-2024 School Improvement Plan

The Tamworth West Public School 2021-2024 School Improvement Plan was published to our school website at the end of last term. Please take the time to read through this plan. It can be found here.

2020 Annual Report

The 2020 Annual Report for Tamworth West Public School was published last week. I encourage you to take the opportunity to read through this report. It can be found here.

Opportunity Class 2020 Applications

For parents of Year 4 students considering applying for the Year 5 Opportunity class next year, the online applications are now open.

Online applications close on Friday 7 May 2021. Parents and carers must apply by the due date.

Applications can be found at:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-5

For further information or support with this process, please contact the front office on 6765 8316.

Year 4 and 6 Check-in Assessments

Our Year 4 and 6 students are completing the new optional state-wide Check-in Assessments. These assessments will provide a snapshot of achievement in reading and numeracy in a number of key skills.

We will be analysing this data to drive our teaching and learning programs in line with our School Improvement Plan.

Piano Club

Under the tutelage of Jenny Gardner, our Piano Club lessons will commence this Tuesday. We have a number of students already enrolled to do either group or individual lessons.

If you are interested in your child learning to play the piano please call Jenny on 0402002742 or collect a note from the front office.

COVID-19 Update – Guidelines for parents/carers entering the school grounds

It is wonderful that we can now welcome our families back into the school grounds for planned activities. Unfortunately, we are not where we were at the start of 2020 but all steps forward are positive.

At Tamworth West Public School, parents, carers and family members are now welcome to attend weekly assemblies and other events as advised.

Any time parents, carers, community members or contractors enter our school site there are regulations we must comply with and so, ongoing attendance at these events is reliant on our visitors adhering to these regulations too.

These regulations include:

• • Physical Distancing

    • • Staff and visitors to schools and offices should maintain 1.5m distance from other adults where practicable.

  • Personal Hygiene

    • • Visitors are asked to use hand sanitiser on arrival.

  • Sign in arrangements

    • • All visitors to a school site must comply with sign-in arrangements. This includes the requirement to sign the school sign-in sheet where they acknowledge that they will comply with the COVID-19 requirements for visitors, contractors and service providers each time they visit.

      • Visitors must also check in using the Service NSW QR code. If a person is unable to provide contact details, for example due to age or language barriers, another person may provide contact details on their behalf. If there are unexpected circumstances which prevent the use of electronic methods to collect contact details (such as an internet outage), paper records will be entered into an electronic format by school staff.

Parents, carers and family members are still not able to enter the school grounds to drop students off or collect students UNLESS you enter through the Bridge Street gate and sign in on both the Service NSW QR code and the sign-in sheet in the front office. Thank you for your support with this.

Weekly Assemblies

For weekly assemblies, the gates at William Street and Church Street will open at 2:45 pm. Assemblies will commence at 3:00 pm and run through until 3:25 pm.

Visitors are asked to check in at the gate using the Service NSW QR code. Please then make your way to the hall. At the entry to the hall, visitors are required to sign the school sign-in sheet where you will be acknowledging that you will comply with our COVID-19 requirements.

Assemblies run on the alternate week for Kindergarten-Year 2 and Year 3-Year 6. Our schedule for this term is as follows:

• Tuesday 4 May – Years 3-6

• Tuesday 11 May – Kindergarten – Year 2

• Tuesday 18 May - Years 3-6

• Tuesday 25 May - Kindergarten – Year 2

• Tuesday 1 June - Years 3-6

• Tuesday 8 June - Kindergarten – Year 2

• Tuesday 15 June - Years 3-6

• Tuesday 22 June – No assembly

Cross Country

Our Cross Country carnival is next Friday, 7 May 2021. Parents, carers and family members are invited to attend but must comply with COVID-19 regulations.

In order to have you in attendance, the school has had to submit a COVID Safety Plan. This plan acknowledges that all visitors will:

• check in using the Service NSW QR code,

• sign the school sign-in sheet where you will be acknowledging that you will comply with our COVID-19 requirements,

• hand sanitise on arrival, and

• maintain 1.5m distance from other adults where practicable.

Our student wellbeing officers and staff will be manning the sign-in areas. Please ensure that you complete these tasks before moving to the spectator areas.

Birthday Cakes

I have had some inquiries about whether students are now able to bring cake to school to celebrate their birthday. I have read through the COVID-19 guidelines, and it is my understanding that students are not able to share one cake, but it is permissible to bring in paddy cakes/cupcakes to share. These do not have to be individually wrapped. We will, of course, continue to support the creative thinkers who chose to share individually wrapped chocolates and icy poles when birthday cakes were on the taboo list.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our school. Have an amazing May!

Terrie Kay

Principal

On the School Development Day, teachers participated in professional learning for the CARS and STARS program that we have begun to implement to improve our teacher’s ability to teach comprehension and to improve our students’ ability to comprehend when reading. This will assist them not only in English but the other Key Learning Areas. Each student has a book they will work through on particular strategies at their own reading level. They have completed pre-tests and graphed their results which allows them to see the areas they will need to work hard at improving.

Jody Welsh

Instructional Leader

Meet Our Staff

In each edition of the newsletter, we introduce you to some of our valued members of staff. This month please meet...

PRIMARY CLASS AWARDS - Term 1: Weeks 9-10 - Term 2: Weeks 1-2

Welcome back to term two. I hope you all had a relaxing Easter break with family and friends. At the end of term one, Kindergarten had a visit from the Easter bunny. Mr. Munday was there to catch all the excitement on the day.

Over the next five weeks, Kindergarten will be learning how to write a simple sentence independently. There is a focus on writing for meaning and sounding out unknown words. Our non-negotiables are to use full stops, capital letters and sensible finger spaces. Here are some of the many fantastic examples of writing done across the grade in the first few weeks of our unit of work.

Kindergarten learnt about measurement in week two of this term. All math groups had fun learning how to measure a range of objects found around the classroom.

Over the next month, Kinder teachers will be gathering information for the Australian Early Development Census. Notes were sent home to Kinder families in week two. If you do not wish your child to participate, please contact Georgie Wilson as soon as possible. The census is an Australian Government Initiative conducted every three years. It measures five key areas of early childhood development for individual children.

1. Physical health and wellbeing

2. Social competence

3. Emotional maturity

4. Language and cognitive skills

5. Communication skills and general knowledge

For further information, please read the frequently asked questions section on the AEDC website at https://www.aedc.gov.au/parents/faqs or phone

1800 092 548.

Kindergarten 2022

Kindergarten enrolments are now being accepted for 2022. The enrolment committee will meet in week ten of this term to process applications for local applications and students who have sibling rights. Non-local applications will be processed on an individual basis. If you know of families zoned for Tamworth West Public School, please encourage them to come to the front office to collect an enrolment package or go online to the school website and complete an electronic enrolment form.

Literacy

This term the students will be learning how to write information reports on various Australian landmarks. We are learning what the structure of information reports looks like and what sort of information we need to include. One of our focuses will be how to bundle information and adding interesting facts and technical terms to engage the audience. The students will also be creating classroom displays on their class’ chosen topic where the classes will rotate around to learn about different Australian landmarks. We can’t wait to see them!

STEM

Last week students participated in various STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities within their classrooms.

It has been great to hear from students and the fun they have had during their activities and the challenges they have overcome to complete the tasks.

Reminders

As Cross-Country creeps closer, students have been practising during their daily morning fitness out on the playground. Don’t forget cross country will be on Friday on Friday, 7 May 2021. I am so pleased that parents and carers are invited to come along for the day and cheer our students on! We can’t wait to see stage 1 students having a go at their very first Cross Country!

Stage 1 will also be preparing for the Athletics Carnival in sport lessons in which students will rotate through various activities with he stage 1 teachers.

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope everyone had a happy and safe Easter and enjoyed some special time with their families. Everyone looks refreshed and ready to learn and we are all looking forward to another term of fun and learning.

This term in English we are focusing on writing persuasive texts. We have already had to write a letter to Mrs Kay to try and persuade her to let students play outside without a hat…. Somehow I don’t think Mrs Kay will agree to our suggestions, but all the teachers loved reading the fabulous reasons why students should play hat-less! The purpose of writing the persuasive letter is to look at areas of focus for our unit of work and where we can improve. The teachers all look forward to working with our classes to develop the skills needed to be successful persuasive writers!

We start off this term with once again working in mixed class groups for Creative Arts for the next 5 Fridays. We welcome Mrs Sinclair and her class from 3-6S to join us in our rotations. We look forward to planning and creating some beautiful artwork using different techniques and materials! As mentioned last term, the students will be split into mixed ability and year level groups – the only difference being that this term we have 5 groups! Each group will rotate around the 5 teachers.

NAPLAN for year 3 students starts in week 4 and goes across weeks 4 and 5. This year the students will be doing a mixture of written and online responses. Although it is a new thing for many of our students, it is important that we as adults, support the children without overwhelming them. The students have already done a few online trials to show students how they access and move through the tests online. The Year 3 teachers will be working with students in the next few weeks to assist with their preparation. More information regarding timetables etc will come out as soon as we know more.

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

Felicity Bagshaw

Classes have also begun using the CARS and STARS program. This comprehensive reading strategies-based program is being utilized throughout the school. The twelve strategies used will support student comprehension.

Numeracy skills will be further developed this term and we cannot express more clearly the importance of learning the times tables. Without knowledge of these facts, students have difficulty completing questions about division, fractions, percentages and word problems. We are trialing Maths online and students have access codes to practise all number skills.

We are looking forward to resuming yoga classes again this term. The school has purchased yoga mats to support the implementation of the lessons. A reminder that students from 6W, 5/6M, 5M and Mrs Sinclair’s room are able to wear their school sports uniform on the Wednesday. Wearing suitable clothing will further support children utilise this invaluable resource we are able to access for no cost to the students. Look at the photos of the fabulous new mats we have purchased.

A reminder that school jumpers should be worn during the school day. Many stage 3 students are arriving at school in hoodies. We appreciate that children grow but it is a school expectation that all students are dressed in the uniform.

The results are in from the EOI regarding the Year 6 shirt. The majority of votes indicated that students preferred to have school jumper in preference to a school polo. A note will be sent home soon regarding the choices and prices.

Leadership Opportunities

Please have a look at the photos of our SRC and wellbeing team. These students very competently assisted throughout the Easter hat parade and will be assisting during other school events this year.

5/6M have been actively supporting sustainability in the school as always... have a look at them enjoying their weekly ‘reward’ after Friday afternoon recycling collection throughout the school.

During our Math lessons all students have been working really hard to learn their multiplication facts. 2D shapes, 3D objects, place value and addition and subtraction activities have provided key areas of focus during the last couple of weeks.

STEM activities have provided students with opportunities to explore their problem solving skills. Students are able to trial, discuss, re-think and re-try a number of methods to meet the challenge with their team and ultimately solve the problem.

The students have also enjoyed visiting Healthy Harold and the Life Education van.

We certainly have been busy with our learning and school activities.

Book Club

Issue 3 was handed out last week. Please return orders by the date on the front of the catalogue – 7 May 2021. There are two ways you can order – return the order page with payment to the office or order online using the LOOP App. If you order online you do not need to return anything to school. When you purchase a book through the Book Club you are supporting your school library through their rewards system.