Newsletter: Term 1 - Week 8

A Message from the Principal

Harmony Day

Today we celebrated Harmony Day. It was wonderful walking around this morning hearing about how proud students were of their different cultures and countries and sharing stories about how they felt connected to their culture and countries and information about their traditional dress. We have a highly diverse school, something which we are really proud of and days such as Harmony Day is a wonderful celebration of this. The artwork created today by the students will be on display in front of the library next week.

Bunnings

Our Year 6 band performed at Bunnings yesterday evening. It made me really proud to see how well they performed and the way they represented our school so well. A big thank you to the families of the band students and community members who came to support the school band, I am sure you will agree it was a great evening.

Our P&C were also there selling their delicious cakes and slices and promoting our school. We are fortunate to have an active and supportive P&C and really appreciate that they came and supported us yesterday at the event.

Cross Country

Our Cross Country Carnival will be held next Thursday on the Bonner oval and will start after the students make their way across with their class after the end of first break (11:45am). Students ages 8 years and over will need a permission note to be able to participate in the carnival as the track goes just outside our school boundaries. Please consider volunteering to help on the day as having parents/carers really supports making our carnival a huge success, To volunteer please contact Fergus - fergus.edwards@ed.act.edu.au

Parent Portal

You will receive an email today with information on how to register for the parent portal. Our front office staff has been at training this week to help our school prepare to role it out. We are really excited about the platform and look forward to having it up and running over the coming weeks.

Road Safety /Parking

We ask everyone to be actively involved in keeping our students safe by parking in designated carpark spaces and/or following signs for street parking. Parking on the verge including nature strips is not safe for students or members of the community, damages the ground and may incur a fine. If you see someone illegally parked the details for reporting the vehicle can be found here Thank you for working together to keep our students and community safe.

Fire drills and Lockdown

At our last P&C meeting we were asked to provide details about and notice of about our drills. Each term we are required to have a Fire Drill, Lockout and Lockdown. Next Tuesday we will run a lockdown practise. During a lockdown teachers lock all doors, close blinds and move students away from sight. Students are given prior warning before any practices take place to support them, the drills are typically quick and are use to gather data and information to make any adjustments so that if a real situation were to occur our staff are well prepared and students would understand what to do.

Principal Announcement

Next term Felicity Levett will join us as acting Principal for Term 2 - 4 while Will Johnston is on leave this year. Felicity is the substantive principal at Mount Rodgers and will bring with her many years of experience in the role.

Stacey Naden who has been acting in my Deputy Principal position finishes with us today to join the leadership team at Harrison. We will have Will Powell join us for the next three weeks as the acting Deputy Principal 3-6 from Arawang Primary while I continue to act in the Principal position. Haeley will continue in her role as Deputy Principal of P-2. Thank you to Stacey for being a part of school community this term, Harrison are very lucky to have you joining them.

Wigs4Kids

Alexis in Year 5 has raised a total of $2,173 and cut off approximately 30cm of hair!

The hair has been posted to Wigs4Kids so a wig can be made for a little one going through cancer treatment. Well done Alexis on raising so much money and donating to such an important cause.

Dates to Remember

Thursday 28 March - Cross country - Bonner oval
Friday 29 March - Good Friday - public holiday

Monday 1 April - Easter Monday - public holiday
District Swimming - Wednesday 3 April
Wednesday 3 April - Amaroo High to visit Neville Bonner - 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
Mother Day stall - Thursday 9 May ( Tuesday 7 May- M/T Preschool)
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

Kindergarten excursion - note
Kindergarten BASE reports - note
Principal Announcement - email

SMS Texts Home

Absences

Student Wellbeing at NBPS

Kindness- Tenacity-Resilience- Empathy- Equity

PBL Focus: Bike Racks and Cyber Space

Cyber safety Information

Sometimes as a school we get asked about cyber safety and how parents can support their students with this. This week we are including a link to a resource called Think You Know which is run by The Australian Federal Police. They provide a range of resources to support parents and carers to understand different online games/social media and resources for parents/carers to support their child.

This week as a part of our focus students will be reviewing our expectations at school around cyber safety. We also would like to take this opportunity to remind parents that students should not be bringing mobile devices to school unless they have an exemption. If they do bring them, they must stay in their bags during school hours. Please see below for our expectations on cyber safety.

Sign Up Now To Access Parent Portal

This term we are introducing a new Parent Portal, a secure online platform used to share student information between you and your child’s teachers.

Using the Parent Portal on your mobile phone, tablet or computer, you will be able to:

· notify us if your child is sick or explain an absence

· book parent-teacher interviews

· receive academic reports

· receive our school newsletter

· receive messages from your child’s teachers

· make payments

· access the school calendar and your child’s student timetable.

You can start the sign up and identity verification process now so you’re ready to go. Head to the Education Directorate website Parent Portal page for all the details.

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.

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 Update

P&C Committee Update

The AGM was held on Monday 18th March and the attending members have unanimously selected, the following people, into the nominated positions:

○ President: Jayne Trustum.
○ Vice President: Nicola Perry.
○ Secretary: Craig Burtenshaw.
○ Treasurer: Sara Duck.
○ Public Officer: Jayne Trustum.
○ ACT P&C Council Representatives: Nicola Perry.
○ Early Learning Representative: Nicola Perry.
○ Executive Member: Fiona Hall.
○ Executive Member: Abby Oakley.
○ Executive Member: Melissa Merton.

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!

Mother's Day Stall

The Mother's Day Stall is returning in 2024.

Save the Date: Thursday 9 May (Tuesday 7 May for M/T Preschool).

Students will be able to shop during class time.

More information, coming soon.