Newsletter: Term 1 - Week 7
A Message from the Principal
Harmony Week
Next week will be celebrating Harmony Week with activities taking place in classrooms across the week and a large artwork will be made and placed in library window. Harmony Week is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. On Friday you are invited to wear orange or traditional/cultural dress to help celebrate this week. Our beginning of the week Preschool groups can wear orange or traditional/cultural dress to help celebrate on Tuesday.
Bunnings - Easter Family Night
Bunnings Gungahlin have invited our Year 6 Band to perform at their Easter Family night and our P&C to hold a cake stall. Come and join in the fun Wednesday 21 March 6-8pm. Our band will be playing at 6-630pm and cakes will be available to purchase until they run out.
Kitchen Garden
During Covid the garden attached to our kitchen building were not used to the full extent and now they are need of a refresh. We are really excited that the P&C have taken on this project and have won a grant to support this work. Fergus is overseeing the Garden Club where students have been able to come in and help get the garden ready, this week we had Bunnings visit to help them. The P&C will also be spending the next few weeks preparing the area before we are able to invite more families to help us in this space. If this is something you might be interested in keep and eye out in the newsletter details from the P&C. We are really excited to see this community project unfold over the year.
P&C AGM
Our P&C will be holding their AGM this coming Monday with the meeting starting at 6:30pm. During this meeting all the positions on the P&C will be up for nomination. If you would like to be considered for one of these positions or would just like to be a member of the P&C we would love to see you there. The P&C help organise many events throughout the year from stalls for Mothers and Fathers Day through to community events such as the Book Fair, this is a great opportunity to be actively involved with the school. Entry for the meeting is through the front office.
Ramadan
We know many of our families are fasting at this time as they are observing Ramadan. Some students may have mentioned that their friends are not eating during the day or may be a little more tired, you can let them know this may be due to fasting. We wish all our families observing this period a Happy Ramadan.
We are on Facebook! If you have Facebook and would like to like our page and follow us please head over to our page www.facebook.com/NevilleBonnerPrimary. Our page has the school logo and a picture of the school in the banner so you know you have found our official page.
Dates to Remember
Wednesday 13 - Monday 25 March - NAPLAN testing
Monday 18 March - P & C meeting
Tuesday 19 March - Preschool M/T Harmony Day
Thursday 21 March - Bunnings Gungahlin Year 6 band performance 6-8pm
Friday 22 March - Harmony Day
Thursday 28 March - Cross country - Bonner oval
Friday 29 March - Good Friday - public holiday
Monday 1 April - Easter Monday - public holiday
Wednesday 3 April - Amaroo High visit - Year 6 students
Monday 8 - Wednesday 10 April - Year 6 camp
Friday 12 April - Last day of term 1
Tuesday 30 April - First day of term 2
Wednesday 1 May - ANZAC assembly and defence morning tea
Wednesday 15 & Thursday 16 May - School photos
Wednesday 22 - Friday 24 May - Year 5 camp
Friday 24 May- Combined band to Margaret Hendry
Monday 24-Wednesday 26 June - Kindergarten health checks
Saturday 3 August - P & C book fair
Communications Sent Home This Week
Notes and Emails Home
Voluntary contributions - email
Web based service permissions - note
K-2 reading volunteers - email
Year 1 Oval incursions - email
SMS Texts Home
Absences
Student Wellbeing at NBPS
Kindness- Tenacity-Resilience- Empathy- Equity
PBL Focus: Toilets and Basketball Courts
School Psychologist Service
· Natalie Taylor is our School Psychologist at Neville Bonner Primary School. She is allocated to us for 3 days per week to support school needs. Her work primarily involves a limited number of psychoeducational assessments, supporting teachers, and completing school disability support applications and reviews. As a school-based service with limited time and resources, the School Psychologist is not intended for crisis support or ongoing therapy needs but may provide external referral and community support advice.
· The School Psychologist at Neville Bonner Primary School works as a part of the Student Support Team, and as such any referrals need to be submitted through the Student Support process - please note that a referral to the team is not a direct referral to the school psychologist. It is important to discuss any concerns with your child's teacher as they will work with you to address those concerns and complete a referral as needed to the Student Support Team – if there are any difficulties in speaking with your child’s teacher, please contact a member of the executive team.
· The Student Support Team (including the psychologist) will meet to discuss the referral and identify next steps. This may include trying different strategies to gather more information, further support at school, recommendations or referrals for external supports, or referral to the school psychologist for direct service. These decisions are based on the information available on the child, the needs of the school, and the psychologist’s capacity to take on the referral. This process allows the Student Support Team to triage and allocate the limited school psychology resources appropriately to best support all student’s needs. Please understand that, as a limited resource, it can be a lengthy process and disability support referrals will often take priority.
Harmony Day
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 outside of the hall. We are now selling brand new hats and beanies, see poster below.
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.
We are having another red food day on Friday 5 April!
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
Students now have a chance to see the Socceroos stars live in action! They take on Lebanon on Tuesday the 26 of March at GIO Stadium.
Get 10% off your tickets! https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=SOCCBRU124&ep=COMMUNITY