Newsletter: Term 1 - Week 4

A Message from the Principal

ACT Concert Groups

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to be part of ACT wide primary concert groups. We are very proud of you and look forward to hearing your progress and performances.

Primary Concert Band - Rocco in year 6 

String Ensemble - Leon and Yuvna in year 6

Primary Choir - Isla, Saujenya and Suari in year 4, and Shivdesh in year 5.  

We love getting to celebrate student achievements so if your child is involved in something outside of school please let us know.

Swimming Carnival

On Monday we will be holding out swimming carnival for competitive swimmers at CISAC. For those students not attending, classes will be on as normal.  I look forward to being able to update you next week on the carnival. Wishing all our swimmers good luck for their events. 

Library

We have the most amazing library at our school and are fortunate to have a wide range of books to choose from, walking around classrooms this week I saw many students with books they just borrowed and excited to start reading. Classes visit the library each week to borrow books. To help protect our books we ask that a bag is sent in to protect borrowed books, it doesn't need to be anything fancy. If you have any spare plastic shopping bags or older calico bags Robyn would love to get these to use for students who forget to bring in something. They can be dropped off to the front office or directly to the library. 

Another great place to borrow from is the local Gungahlin Library, membership for the library is free. Click this  link for more information. They have lots of great programs on throughout the week ranging from workshops for babies and todlers right through to adult workshops. For more information about the programs on offer at the library please see link

Seesaw

Across Preschool to Year 6 we use Seesaw as way of capturing students learning through a digital portfolio format. If you are not able to access your child's Seesaw account please contact your child's teacher who will be able to help you get connected. On the platform you can 'like' the post by click the heart icon and can add a comment such as "I love the way you used your maths strategies to solve that problem.", "What a great Science experiment.", "I can not wait to hear more about the book." Having comments and 'likes' gives encouragement to your child/ren (and their teachers too).

Before School Supervision

At Assembly this week we reminded all our students about going to The River when they arrive at school. We have a teacher on duty 8:30-9:00am on The River, this is the main area of the school grounds. The teacher on duty wears a bright fluro vest so they can be easily seen. We ask that all children stay on the river, basketball courts and/or wagabaliri before the bell goes. Other playgrounds areas are not supervised and we ask families not to let children play on these before school. 

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: Arnhem Land, Torres Strait and East Coast

Next week our teachers will be teaching the expectations for our various play areas across the school. 

Before School

A friendly reminder that if students arrive before 9am they are to play on The River. No students should be playing in Arnhem Land, Torres Strait or YuYu in the morning. Even if their parents are ask them we ask that they follow our whole school expectation of right place, right time!

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.

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.

Second Hand Uniform Shop

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

Every Wednesday from 8.40am to 9.20am.

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 play break.

Friday 8 March is Red canteen day! Specials in the poster below.

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