Newsletter: Term 1 - Week 3

A Message from the Principal

University of Canberra Affiliated Schools

This year our school became an official Affiliated Schools as part of a collaborative partnership between the ACT Education Directorate and the University of Canberra. This is an exciting partnership for our school recognising the high quality teaching and learning provided at Neville Bonner. This week we held our first clinics which saw over 20 pre service teachers visit our school and work with Year 2 students as part of the HASS university course. These teachers will continue to work with our Year 2 students once a week over the next 6 weeks. We look forward to showcasing our school to many more preservice teachers this year. 

Year 6 Shirts - 'Learning on Country'

You may have noticed some amazing blue shirts being worn by our Year 6 students. Each year Year 6 students are able to wear a special top for their last year of primary school and this year we made some changes to ensure students would be able to wear these all year. The shirts were designed by Eddie Longford, a local contemporary indigenous artist and manufactured by a local supplier One Sport. The deign tells a story about the region - the Brindabella Mountains and the Murrumbidgee River (which are both significant to the the traditional owners of Canberra) the centre Circle is school - the bottom smaller circle is community and the other smaller circle is our supports that help us through education - the u shape (near the inner circle) are students and teachers learning off each other) the smaller u shapes on the outer edges are community, families and other significant people in the students lives.

P&C Second Hand Uniform Shop

Our P&C has a second hand uniform shop and opens every Wednesday morning outside the hall. They have both cash and EFTPOS facilities making it quick and easy to pick up some well priced uniform items. If you have any items to donated these can be dropped off Wednesday morning directly to out volunteers or any time to the front office. 

Helmets

We have a large number of students who ride their bikes and scooters to school which is a great way to stay active as well as travel to and from school. We have unfortunately seen many students without helmets, under ACT law all people riding scooters on public streets/areas should have helmet. The exception to this regulation is a if the person is wearing a type of headdress customarily worn by members of a religious group; and the wearing of the headdress makes it impractical for the person to wear an approved bicycle helmet. We want all our students to arrive and leave school safely and ask that all parents and carers promote the wearing of helmets. 

Dates to Remember





Communications Sent Home This Week

Notes and Emails Home

SMS Texts Home

Student Wellbeing at NBPS

Kindness- Tenacity-Resilience- Empathy- Equity 

PBL Focus: The River and The Hall

This week our teachers have been teaching our students about The River and The Hall. We have also commenced giving out our tokens for students showing our expectations. These tokens are drawn at assembly and a student from each year level is given a canteen voucher donated by our wonderful P&C.  Once a student has 30 of these tokens in an area they are awarded with a bronze certificate. This then goes into a silver and gold certificate. 

NAPLAN

NAPLAN testing will occur in our school between 13 and 25 March 2024 for students in years 3 and 5.


Online NAPLAN tests provide more precise results and are engaging for students. The tests are tailored (or adaptive), which means that each test presents questions that may be more or less difficult depending on a student’s responses. This helps students remain engaged with the assessment. 


Tailored testing allows a wider range of student abilities to be assessed and measures student achievement more precisely. A student’s overall NAPLAN result is based on both the number and complexity of questions they answer correctly. Your child should not be concerned if they find questions challenging; they may be taking a more complex test pathway. 


All Year 3 students will continue to complete the writing assessment on paper.


NAPLAN provides valuable information to schools and parents about literacy and numeracy achievement. It supports school improvement processes by enabling teachers to monitor student progress over time and to identify areas of strength and development. 


All eligible students are encouraged and supported to participate in NAPLAN testing. Visit www.nap.edu.au to see interactive versions of the test and for more information.

School Board Nominations

Nominations are now open for the school board. Positions vacant:


Please email Vanessa vanessa.mcmaster@ed.act.edu.au for a nomination form 


2024 Elections

Wigs4Kids Fundraising

Lexi from Year 5 is fundraising for ‘Kids with Cancer’ and will donate her hair to the ‘Wigs4Kids’ foundation. She will be cutting her hair in March and although she has already reached the initial goal of $1,000, she will continue to update the goal every $500 until she cuts her hair. 

Please see the QR code if you would like to support Lexi and make a donation.

Assembly Roster 2024

Medical Information

A reminder to please complete your child's medical information and consent form. Hard copies are available at the front office. 

At the start of each school year every child is required to have a medical information and consent form completed. Along with this any medication (and action plan) that is required is to be delivered to the front office, and a medical consent form is to be completed.  If your child no longer has a medical condition and does not require medication, please let us know.

Preschool and new students will have completed this form as part of the enrolment pack and are not required to complete another one unless details change over this year. 

Christian Education

The Christian Education In Schools (CEIS) project provides a coordinated service to fulfil such requests. This service includes four modern and interactive sessions each year (one per term and varied each year), prepared professionally and delivered by trained and endorsed volunteers. The one-hour sessions are designed for groups of students to discuss and explore the topics outlined in the image. The team visits our school on the last Wednesday of each term.

If you would like your child to participate in the Christian Education workshops please complete the enrolment form (also attached to the newsletter link email)


Equity Fund

The Future of Education Equity Fund for the 2024 school year is open.

 

The Equity Fund provides a one-off, annual payment to low-income families living in the ACT to help cover the costs of education expenses like school uniforms, excursions, sport equipment, activities and music lessons. The Equity Fund is open to eligible families with students in years P-12.

 

Applications for the 2024 school year can be made online. Find out more at https://bit.ly/3SH0cUr

Update Household Details

If you have moved house or changed phone numbers, please be sure to update your details with the front office. 

You can do this in person at the office or via email: nevillebonnerps@ed.act.edu.au

It is important to keep this information up to date in case we need to contact you in an emergency as well as for when the new parent portal is released later this year.

Thank you, the admin team.

Parents' and Citizens' Association

Neville Bonner Parents and Citizens Committee

Our P&C provides services to the school such as canteen, second hand uniform shop, disco and other activities. Without a P&C, we cannot continue to do these things. 

For more information on our committee and event notices and updates, please head to the P&C Facebook or the Neville Bonner P&C page We are always happy to accept new members into the P&C and event volunteers as well - send us an email.

More information about our canteen; lunch orders with flexischools, over the counter sales and birthday cupcakes, as well as the uniform shop can be found on the P&C component of the school website.

Contact Us

Want to touch base with your P&C? You can email us at nevillebonnerps.pandc@gmail.com, or connect through FB at https://www.facebook.com/NBPS.PandC.

Committee Meeting

Our next meeting will incorporate the AGM and it is in Week 8 – Monday 18th March @ 6:30pm.

All current executive positions will be spilled and nominations for executive positions are welcome. There are options for assistant roles for the executive positions too.

New committee members, volunteers and ideas, for the P&C to support the school, are always welcome too.

Canteen

The P&C Canteen is running every day.

Orders can be placed through the Flexischools website (http://Flexischools.com.au) or through the Flexischools app.

The canteen is also operating over the counter sales on:

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday during first play break.

Wednesday and Friday during second playbreak.

Gardening Crew

Do you like spending time outside, gardening or pulling weeds? Or perhaps you would like to learn about gardening? If you have answered yes to any of these then you may like to spend a few hours each month helping to maintain our kitchen garden space. P&C are looking for volunteers who would like to join our gardening crew as we embark on a 9 month project to bring life back to our kitchen garden space.
 Keep an eye on the P&C Facebook Page for Gardening Bees coming up throughout the year.

CARDBOARD BOXES

We need boxes, preferably without any plastics on them, as we are looking to cover the existing beds to smother the weeds and grasses, as the first stage to rejuvenation.

We're happy to take any donations, the larger the better.

Please drop them through the red gates, onto the concrete, at the top of the school closest to the Bonner Traffic Lights.

Please let the P&C Facebook Messenger know when you do too, so we can ensure they don't become a littering hazard.

Second Hand Uniform Shop

Neville Bonner Primary School P&C Second Hand Uniform Stall is open.

Every Wednesday from 8.40am to 9.20am.

We are looking for stall volunteers for 2024. The best day can be up to you, previously Wednesday's have been either:

- 8.45am to 9.45am (usually around Junior Assembly timing); or
 - 2.30pm to 3.30pm.

Training on the use of the tablet and EFTPOS Square will be provided.
 Scholastic Book Club

Issue One orders close on Monday 19th February. 

Orders can be selected as a gift and these will be available for collection from the front office.

Unfortunately, we can NOT accept cash orders through the front office, please place orders through the the Scholastic Book Club LOOP website (https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Login.aspx).

Don’t forget 20% of every sale is given to the P&C in ‘rewards’ that the school can use to purchase resources from the catalogues.

In 2023, through the book club rewards, the P&C were able to contribute over $2000 towards books for the school library, thanks to purchases throughout the year.

Contact Information

Principal:

Sylvia Headon

sylvia.headon@ed.act.edu.au


Deputy Principals:

Haeley Simms (P-2) haeley.simms@ed.act.edu.au

Stacey Naden (3-6) stacey.naden@ed.act.edu.au

P&C President:

Jayne Trustum nevillebonnerps.pandc@gmail.com


Board Chair:

Amani Kerr

Community Information