Tamworth West Public School

Applications for Year 5 opportunity class placement in 2024

Applications for placement in a Year 5 opportunity class in 2024 opened on Thursday 30 March and close on Monday 15 May 2023.

Parents of Year 4 students are hereby advised of the opportunity to apply online. Application information can be downloaded from Opportunity classes – Year 5.

Parents without internet access or who cannot use a computer can apply at a public library or contact the school so we can assist you. Parents with disability that preclude the use of a computer can contact the Selective Education Unit for assistance.

School Cross Country

On Tuesday 4 April we will be holding our school Cross Country Carnival. All students will be participating in this school event. The venue for the Cross Country has changed to:

• Riverside 1 Oval for 11 and 12 year olds

• Riverside 2 Oval for 8,9 and 10 year olds 

• Riverside 3 Oval for 5,6 and 7 year olds.

These are the first three sporting ovals as you drive along Carter street from the Bridge Street intersection. All staff and students will be walking to the ovals.

We anticipate starting the event at 10:20am, beginning with our K-2 and 11/12/13yr followed by the 8/9yr and 10yr races. Additional games and tabloids will be operating, in conjunction with the Cross Country running. 

Students will be supported by teaching staff and students from Peel High School throughout the day. 

Parents are encouraged to support their child/ren from designated areas, to ensure the safety of students and avoid course disruptions. 

Students are encouraged to wear their sporting house colours and display team spirit by supporting their house through participation. Please ensure that students wear their school hat. 

The canteen will be running a sausage sizzle on the day. Sausage sandwiches are priced at $2.50 and water at $2.00. A sausage sandwich and juice bomb combo is available for $5.00. Children can also bring a packed lunch and water bottle. 

Parents and carers are reminded to see a supervising teacher at the carnival to sign children out if you would like to take children before the school group returns to school.

Easter Hat Parade

Our Easter Hat Parade will be held on Wednesday 5 April 2023 at 10.30am.  It will be a whole school event and all K-6 classes will be parading. 

We would love to see as many families as possible come and watch each class parade their hats. Families are invited to stay afterwards and share lunch with their children. 

The parade will be held on the basketball court/grass area (weather permitting). The wet weather alternative will be under the COLA. 

We encourage students to make a hat at home for the parade – it is a good time to get creative!

Entry and exit will be via the large double gates on Church Street, closest to the hall. Please remember that all visitors to a school must sign in and out. QR Codes will be available at the double gates for this purpose. If you do not have a mobile phone, please ensure that you enter and exit through the front office.

ANZAC Day

Our school ANZAC Day Service will be held in the hall on Thursday 6 April at 10:50am. Families are most welcome to attend. Please enter the school via the front gates to sign in at the office. This year our students are invited to participate in the ANZAC Day March in Peel Street on Tuesday 25 April. Those wishing to march are asked to assemble in Bourke Street, between Peel and Marius Streets outside the Lion's Mane Hair Salon at 9:30am. School staff will be there to supervise and march with the students. All students must wear full summer school uniform, including black shoes, grey socks for boys and white socks for girls. The march will conclude at No.1 Oval in Kable Avenue at approximately 10:30am. Parents are asked to collect their children from this area. Please see one of the supervising staff to advise them you have collected your child.

Our School Captains will attend a wreath laying ceremony in the Town Hall at 10:45am following the march. We hope to see as many of our students as possible representing Tamworth West Public School as we pay our respects.

Supervision before and after school

I have received a number of concerns regarding the supervision of students before school and after school. Legally, schools do not assume the duty of care of students until playground supervision begins in the morning. Playground supervision at Tamworth West Public School does not commence until 8:55 am. Before this time, duty of care remains the responsibility of parents and carers. Please ensure that students are not dropped at school and left unsupervised for extended periods of time before school. This is especially important as we enter the cooler months of the year.

Classes at Tamworth West conclude at 3:25 pm. At this time students are released to travel home. Students who catch a bus home are supervised until the last bus departs. Students who walk home are accompanied to the traffic lights at the corner of Bridge and Denne Streets, while students who are collected by family members are accompanied to the William Street or Church Street gates. Parents and carers are also welcome to come into the school grounds and can meet children under the large COLA in the main quadrangle or the smaller COLA outside the canteen. 

Teachers are not on duty at the William Street or Church Street gates and if students are not collected within a reasonable time, they will be asked to report to the front office and will then wait for parents or carers under the large COLA. On the rare occasion that this happens, parents and carers will be asked to enter the school grounds to collect their children.

Thank you for your support with this.  

COVID-19 Cases Rising: Reminder to continue COVID-smart measures

NSW Health has recently advised that we are starting to see a rise in COVID-19 transmissions within the community, with a peak in cases expected over the coming weeks.

Our COVID-smart measures continue to be in place to help reduce the risk of transmission for students and staff members and are vital in allowing us to keep our schools operational while prioritising student and staff wellbeing. These measures include:

• staying home and getting tested if unwell, and only attending school when symptom free

• rapid antigen testing for symptomatic students and staff – people exposed to COVID-19 should follow NSW Health guidance and test to identify infection early even if they aren’t experiencing any symptoms

• maintaining double dose vaccination requirements for all staff who work in an SSP and strongly encouraging all students, staff and families to keep up-to-date with their vaccinations, including COVID-19 booster shots, if eligible.

NSW Health is also encouraging everyone in the community to continue to register positive RATs with Service NSW to ensure they receive timely support and advice, including access to antivirals for those eligible. 

School Holidays

Good Friday and Easter Monday are recognised nationally as public holidays. This year Easter also coincides with the start of the Autumn school holidays. 

The term 2 School Development Day was rescheduled in consultation with the P&C. Tamworth West Public School will be non-operational on Monday 24 April 2023.

Students and staff will return to school for term 2 on Wednesday 26 April 2023. 

I hope you have an lovely Easter and an incredible break and I look forward to seeing everyone next term.

Happy Easter

Terrie Kay

Principal

The Resilience Project Parent Information session

The parent/carer webinar offered to families on the 23 March was unable to be accessed by many of our families due to a clash of commitments. There will be a family information evening, early in term 2, to view the webinar and hear from our staff about the program that is promoting a sense of wellbeing amongst our students and staff through gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness. We will publicise the date early next term. 

Yaama, 

This term, during Gamilaraay language lessons, Kindergarten have been learning lots of instructions used at school in language. It is wonderful seeing them show their understanding by being able to respond appropriately to these spoken words.

Stage 1 are working on learning and reciting simple sentences in Gamilaraay language using colours and being able to show understanding through action.

Stage 2 and 3 are learning how to translate sentences into Gamilaraay language with the use of our Language dictionaries. They are then reading these sentences aloud, with the focus being on pronunciation and intonation to help convey meaning. 

During our Meet and Greet PBL focus, we continue to introduce Gamilaraay language to support our fortnightly focus. It has been wonderful to see this language being used in the classroom and playground.

We look forward to sharing other cultural events and details happening around the school in the future. 

Yaluu

P&C AGM

Earlier in the month we held our Annual General Meeting. Congratulations to the following members who were elected in the executive roles:

Vice Presidents - Rachel Mountain and Renae Mumford

Secretary - Bianca Mills

Treasurer - Emily Crompton

Thank you to the outgoing executive - Catherine Te Au and Naomi Welch.  Your contribution to our school is greatly appreciated.

Next Meeting

Our next general meeting will be held on Monday 8 May, 5:30pm in the staffroom. New members are always welcome.

We hope that you all have an amazing Easter and a wonderful two weeks holiday.

Canteen Menu [Download]

Tamworth West Public School is a Positive Bevahiour for Learning (PBL) school. PBL is a whole school program that encourages positive behaviour and allows students to become responsible for their own actions. Students and teachers work together to create a positive learning environment within our school using consistent procedures, language and expectations.

We have three expectations that underpin teaching and learning at Tamworth West Public School.

These are:

RESPECT

RESILIENCE

RESPONSIBILITY

We encourage students to uphold these expectations to a high standard. Our PBL motto is:

EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERY TIME

Positive Rewards

We have a school wide behaviour system that recognises and encourages positive behaviour. Students receive raffle tickets for displaying the correct behaviour. 

Weekly Lessons

Students participate in weekly school wide lessons that focus on a specific behaviour which is determined by data. There is a fortnightly focus area taught after each PBL assembly, for example, sportsmanship in games.

RESPECT

• We keep our areas tidy

• We use our manners

• We speak nicely to others

• We keep our hands and feet to ourselves

RESILIENCE

• We accept our consequences

• We use also inclusive

• We seek help when needed

• We solve problems peacefully

RESPONSIBILITY

• We look after our things

• We wear our school uniform

• We are honest

• We stay in the right areas

Home Readers

In week 9 we had four wonderful mothers come in and cover our decodables with clear plastic. Kindergarten would like to thank these parents for giving up their time to support our school. Our new home readers will be sent home in term 2.

Maths

In maths this month we made our own rekenreks using beads, pegs, paddle pop sticks and straws. Students used these to develop their knowledge of numbers 0 to 10 and the different number combinations you can use to make a number. 

Easter Celebrations

Kindergarten is very excited about the TWPS Easter Hat Parade coming up in week eleven. We hope to see lots of Mums, Dad, Grandparents and friends at the parade when the whole school joins in to celebrate a wonderful Aussie celebration. In class, we will be decorating Easter baskets and doing a range of Easter activities.  We are hoping the Easter Bunny will drop by our classrooms to check out our creative artwork and fingers crossed, he may even leave us a few eggs! 

To all our families, have a safe and relaxing Easter break. 

From the Kinder Team

We have had an amazing Term 1 and we cannot believe it’s almost the holidays.

Sport

This term has seen some significant improvement in sports skills. We have had a go at tennis, cricket and dance. We have been practising for our Cross Country this week and we are all getting better and fitter each day 😊 We are soooo excited for Tuesday. 

Assemblies

In Term 2, 1SD will lead and perform at the assembly in week 2 and 1D will be in Week 4. Please come along and support us. 😊 

Sport

Year 2 have learnt many skills during sport. We have played tennis, cricket and we really enjoyed practising dance. Students have learnt about; how to handle and hold equipment, how to use movement and coordination, and most importantly, working as a team to have a fair game and build friendships. 

Math

We love Math! Year 2 has learnt so much this term. So far, we have looked at place value, shapes, patterns and measurement. We have used a lot of equipment, such as 2D shapes, blocks, rulers and pan balances. Year 2 completed activities involving measuring distances in and out of the classroom. We learnt about weight and used classroom objects to compare and describe items as being lighter, heavier or equal. 

English

Year 2 have been working hard to develop their writing skills. We have explored punctuation and grammar and closely looked at simple and compound sentences. It has been amazing to see the students use their imagination during writing and contribute to class discussions. We have looked at some fantastic texts, such as Peggy by Anna Walker, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester.  

Assembly

In Week 8, 2H did a terrific job at presenting the assembly and gave a great performance of their Sloth poem. In Week 10, 2P presented a video on Where the Wild Things Are. Students loved this text and wanted to share it with you. Please check out our video with the link below:

Homework

Year 2 are amazing! The homework we have received from the students has been incredible. It has been so nice to see students having a passion to learn and practise their skills at home. Big shout out for our amazing Year 2 students.

Creative Arts

2P have created some incredible artworks inspired by galaxies. Check them out!

The past few weeks we have been focusing on writing persuasive texts. The students have been learning to write using the correct text structure and to explain their reasons. Hopefully they will try out some persuasive arguments to you over the holidays!

Students from across all the Stage 2 classes are also working in mixed class and year level groups for both sport and visual art. All  teachers program and teach new sports every 2 weeks so our students are learning a variety of different games. We are looking forward to our Cross Country tomorrow. Good luck Stage 2!

Earlier this term our Year 3 students completed NAPLAN. The teachers involved were so proud of how resilient our students were to complete their tests. Year 4 students will complete their online tests next term which are called ‘Check In Assessments”. They are done twice a year and the data is used to compare student growth. Well done to our students in Year 3 and good luck to our students in Year 4!

This week we have a busy week!

• On Tuesday 4 April, we will be competing in the school cross country held down at the Riverside 2 Oval. This is one of the first three sporting ovals as you drive along Carter Street from the Bridge St intersection. All students from K-6 will be running the Cross Country, plus joining in some fun activities on the day. Thank you to all the parents who returned the note promptly. As it is a whole school event it is expected that all students  attend the day.  

• On Wednesday 5 April, we will be having our K-6 Easter Hat Parade. The parade starts at 10.30am on the basketball court and we are hoping the weather will be kind to us and stay dry!! Parents are welcome to stay and have lunch with their child. Students are asked to make hats at home with their families. Teachers will try and help students who arrive without a hat to parade in, but we do ask that families do what they can to help us out with this.

• On Thursday 6 April, our students will be commemorating ANZAC Day with our annual ANZAC Day assembly. 

Thursday 6 of April is also the last day of the school term. Often teachers like to give small Easter eggs out to our students as a way to celebrate Easter. If your family does not celebrate Easter, your child cannot eat chocolate, or you would prefer your child was not given chocolate eggs please let your child’s classroom teacher know so we can organise an alternative! 

As always, thank you to our families for the fabulous support they give our staff. Thank you also to our amazing staff for the work they do each day.  We wish all of our students and their families a happy and safe holiday. 

Felicity Bagshaw

Stage 2 Assistant Principal

• We have had an excellent response to the Canberra Excursion EOI and shall be able to secure two buses if all EOI participants pay. Further information outlining exact pricing will be available soon. 

• The Year 6 shirts have been ordered and hopefully, will be here before the end of the term. The proofs look amazing. Those parents/guardians who attended the Stage 3 information evening saw the shirt that students elected to wear. Please remember the commemorative shirt is only worn on Friday.

• Mr Lyon and Miss Deaves chose a strong 32-member team to participate in the Science and Engineering Challenge last week. These students reported that the experience was fantastic and they made our school proud by placing second overall.

• Students have been selected in different sporting teams including cricket and touch for knockout events and individual students have sought selection in soccer, basketball, touch and hockey with varied success.

• Harmony Day celebrations involved a mufti day, in-class tasks and a special food order from the canteen. Thanks for supporting student engagement in ensuring they dressed either in orange or bright clothes.

• Some of the Tamworth Show photos are included. The pure joy expressed by students, especially patting animals, made the entire experience worthwhile.  

• Finally, the envelope note sent home helps us support students' needs. The change of details form should be returned if any emergency contacts are changed, or phone numbers, addresses are no longer relevant. The general permission note included must be returned for any student wishing to watch movies at school that are rated PG. This does affect all stage 3 students, as we hope to watch Wonder in Week 11 at the conclusion of our English unit of work.

Numeracy

We continue to work on number talks, problem solving and metalanguage. It is exciting that in terms 2 and 3 we have Strategic School Support for numeracy within our school. This will mean staff shall be involved in professional learning that will enhance their skill set. Students will be studying specifically the skills of additive and multiplicative strategies. Both areas are targeted as needing improvement to ensure positive growth across our school.

Staff Commitment

Finally, we would like to thank Mrs. Nicole Lothian for being a valued member of our team. Nicole hopes to be relocating to Victoria with her family in term 2. We have been extremely fortunate to have her working with Stage 3 staff and students. Her wealth of experience and passion for delivering quality educational programs has been evident with all the students she has worked with. Our loss is truly Victoria’s gain.

Kirrily Milton

Assistant Principal (Relieving)

The end of term is coming up very quickly and soon it will be the Easter holiday break! We have had a wonderful term packed with great learning activities and now we have some fun things to look forward to in week 11. Starting with our Cross Country Day on the 4th April. Students are trying hard during sport and PE sessions completing a course around the school. The students are very excited about the day as it is one of their favourite activities. We look forward to seeing our parents on the day to help cheer on the students. Our Easter Hat Parade is on 5th April so everyone will be busy creating amazing Easter hats for the parade. The ANZAC assembly will be held on 6th April which is a lovely way to finish off the term.

We would like to extend our thanks to all the parents for meeting with us to discuss their child’s Personalised Learning and Support Plans. It was great to be able to sit down and talk about the plans and how the students are going so far this year. So, thank you again for making the time to come in.

During the term K-4M have been learning about ‘Context’ during writing lessons and we have enjoyed reading and working on ‘Our Island’ a lovely book written about Mornington Island. The students enjoyed this book and produced some great writing activities. We also read and worked on ‘Under the Southern Cross’ which took us around Australia to lots of different places and we found out some very interesting facts about each place.  In Mathematics we have been working on number patterns, addition and subtraction. Maths always brings a smile to the students in K-4M as it is one of their favourite activities. 

3-6T have been very busy at work this month. Our favourite subjects are Maths and Art and we have been doing a lot of practical activities to support our learning in both these areas. We have studied Australian Landscapes in Art, examining the way artists such as Sidney Nolan and Albert Namatjira have painted the beautiful scenery of our vast country. We have enough beautiful artwork in our classroom to rival the Lourve! In our other favourite subject, Math, we have been focusing on our times tables, measuring length and investigating fractions. Last week, we examined fractions using caramel mudcake, which was a delicious exercise to cement our understanding of wholes and equal parts. 

The class have produced an amazing Acknowledgment of Country, which will eventually be translated into Gamilaraay language and read at Assembly when it is our turn to present.

This term 3-6T have been learning how to write factual descriptions. We learnt what the structure of a factual description looks like and the types of information that we needed to include to make our writing interesting. The students have been studying animals and have written some amazing pieces of writing.

3-6L have been learning about living things and their needs. The students have examined the lifecycles of frogs and chickens and compared them to the lifecycles of other birds and amphibians, looking at the similarities and differences. This has led to many interesting discussions and research dives into the cycles of other animals, not to mention some discussion around the class’s favourite joke, “What came first, the chicken or the egg!” Mr Lyon argues  that scientifically it would be the egg, but the class is yet to be convinced!

In math we have been learning problem attack skills. Research has shown there are five reasons people fail written numeracy problems. As a result of this research, we are learning to attack these components one by one to increase our success rate. The steps are: 1 – Read the problem. 2 – Find what it wants us to do. 3 – Find the information we need. 4 – Do the math. 5 – Record the answer. The class problem solves the questions together to step 4. They attempt the math themselves and then share which strategy they tried. This leads to great student guided discussions and allows students to discover new strategies to try on their own.

A large amount of our class has also just completed the NAPLAN assessments. This was a four-day change to their routines. They faced this with optimism and had a red-hot go, which is the most important aspect of the experience.

3-6L has also taken the time to write their own Acknowledgement of Country. The students looked at how acknowledgements are done by different people and groups and through discussion came up with what they thought was important to include. This was a long process with much discussion around wording. Below is what the class decided they liked the best.

“Today we are on Gamilaraay land. We pay our respects to the elders, past, present and emerging. We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where we learn and play. We ask you to take care of the land while you are here.”

The students have had an excellent term. I hope that you are all safe over the holidays and look forward to another fun experience in term 2.

Chris Lyon                           Kylie Taber                     Linda McEnerny

3-6L                                     3-6T                                     K-4M

What a wonderful start to the year the students have had! With all the incredible show entries and many awards given, along with the school cup presented to us by Mrs Denise Morris. The School Cup trophy was presented to Tamworth West for all our entries, and in recognition of our wonderful work. Fantastic work everyone! Next term sees the whole school focusing on dance. 

Early Stage 1

This term, Early Stage 1 has explored the topic ‘In the Garden.’ Students have explored bumblebees, butterflies, caterpillars, frogs, lady beetles and the artist Emma Gale. We have worked with different colours and different techniques to create a picture, and a variety of mediums such as oil pastels, pencils, watercolour paint and paper tearing. All students have engaged in the activities and have been an absolute delight to teach. Well done Kinder!

Stage 1

Stage 1 has been exploring art from around the world. Students have examined African prints and recreated print using oil pastels. We studied the Native American head dress as it is the well-known symbol of strength and bravery to the indigenous people of North America. Head dresses are important because they are worn by the most powerful and influential members of the tribe. Students manipulated resources to create their own paper head dress. They used the internet to draw a dragon, and explored how to draw animals using vibrant colours from South America. Students examined how to draw an alien landscape and to draw Zen tangles using black texta to create patterns and effects. All students have worked hard, and I thoroughly enjoyed our lessons. Great work Stage 1!

Students have explored how to draw a one-point perspective skyscraper city. This was challenging, however, the students persisted and created some great illusions. We explored how to make a simple castle and, using a variety of coloured shapes, make a haunted house. All stage 2 students have worked extremely hard, and I am delighted with their achievements. 

North West Regional Swimming Trials

Well done to our Swimming team who headed to Armidale on Monday 6 March to compete at the Regional Carnival. Whilst none of our Swimmers were successful in making it through to the State PSSA Swimming trials, they can all hold their heads high for competing against the best swimmers in the North West. 

A special mention to Savannah Mills who at the last moment was asked to swim with the Senior Girls Relay Team as one of the team members couldn’t make it due to illness. It was a big ask but she was up for the challenge and allowed our Relay team the opportunity to swim in their race. 

Our Regional Swimmers were: Jesse Sandison-Welch, Ryleigh Woolfe, Sienna Mulligan, Savannah Mills, Carter Radford, Jace Eldridge, Lyric Maru and Flynn Sandison-Welch. 

Zone Trials

We have had numerous students trial for various sports over the last month. 

Congratulations to Jett Gleeson and Jaylen Krog-Hazlewood for being selected into the Tamworth Zone team and will now progress to the Southern Regional Football Trials on the 2nd of May. 

Cameron Mumford was successful in again making the North West Boys PSSA Hockey team who will compete at the State Carnival in Tamworth in late May. Hamish Blackman, was named as a reserve, which is a great result for a Year 4 student. 

The Boys basketball trials were held last Wednesday with both Rheef Wise and Lachlan Young being picked to play in the Tamworth Zone team. The boys played well throughout the day and were rewarded with selection into the Possible v Probable's game. Both boys were selected as reserves for the North West team. Well done Rheef and Lachlan!  

Last Thursday Jace Dawson, Kahlan Shepherd and Ashar Shepherd trial for the 11 Years Zone Rugby League team, whilst Naite Syron and Harris Avdic trialled for the Open Rugby League team. Both Jace and Ashar were successful in being named in the 11 Years Zone team and will trial for the North West team on the 26th of April when school returns. 

Congratulations to all students who have trialled for Zone and Regional teams this term. It is pleasing to see so many of our students putting themselves out there and striving to be recognised for the sports they enjoy, regardless of the outcome. 

Jonathan Willis

Sports Coordinator