Newsletter: Term 4 - Week 7

A Message from the Principal

Just three weeks left now until the Summer holidays. It’s hard to believe how quickly the year has gone. I was reflecting with some staff members at the end of last week about the drive thru RAT collection we coordinated in February, and that that way of living seems such a distant memory and almost unfathomable that it was even part of this year.

School Satisfaction Survey – Thank you to all the families who filled in our school satisfaction survey. The results from this were encouraging and show that some of the improvements and adjustments we have made this year have been appreciated by our community. Notably, the proportion of parents with strong agreement increased on the school’s commitment to academic emphasis, staff student relationships, ability for a parent to talk to teachers about concerns and that we look for ways to improve as a school. As with all schools we still strive for continual improvement and thank our parents for identifying that we have work to do with regard to taking parents opinions seriously and having high expectations in everything we do. We welcome this feedback and will continue to actively build upon the work we’ve started in 2022.

Parent Teacher Interviews and Reports – Semester Two reports will be sent out on Monday of Week 9 (5 December) via email. Following the sending home of reports we will be holding parent teacher interviews for the remainder of that week. You will receive an email with details of how to book a spot on the school interviews website.

Voluntary Contributions – I’d like to thank the families who have paid voluntary contributions this year. These contributions enhance the educational experiences of our students and are highly appreciated. At the beginning of next year we will be sending information out to all families with information relating to voluntary contributions and how you can make your payment. I think it is worthwhile explaining what voluntary contributions are and are not used for. Voluntary contributions do not support teacher salaries, maintenance and utilities. They do support the acquisition of learning resources including tablets and computers, robotic and coding resources, sports equipment, musical equipment, games, puzzles art supplies and library resources. These all enhance your child’s learning experience at Neville Bonner Primary School. Although voluntary, we do request that you support the school in this way. We want our students to have the best educational opportunities and resources and these contributions help us achieve this.

School Entrances and before school supervision – As covid restrictions have reduced significantly we no longer require students and families to enter through specific gates. In terms of parking and congestion using the carpark on Mabo Boulevard is recommended. We have been made aware that tickets have been given for parking infringements. The school will not be in a position to support families in having these notices waived. Parking spots are clearly marked and labelled. There is also additional parking on the other side of the community oval which is just a short walk to our school grounds.

We do have plans to open the gates slightly earlier each morning from the beginning of 2023 which we will communicate accordingly. The decision on when to open school grounds is that of each individual school and there is not an ACT standard which schools need to be in line with. In cases where families drop students off well before the beginning of the school day, we would suggest for the child’s safety to engage with communities at work to organise before school care supervision. Supervision before school is limited to the river and basketball area for the whole school. The playground equipment areas are out of bounds. The use of scooters on school grounds is prohibited. This applies to our students and children who do not attend Neville Bonner School.

2023 Reminders – As promised I will continue to ensure we are regularly reminding parents of book packs, subscription and school leaver actions.

Book pack information – Please click here

Subscription permission – Please click here – We need all families to complete this if you haven’t already done so.

School Leavers form – Please click here

Dates to Remember

Term 4

Monday 28 November - Pupil free day
Tuesday 29 November - Preschool M/T transition to Kinder

Thursday 1 December - Preschool T/F transition to Kinder
Thursday 1 December - Fizzics Education Science incursion - Year 1 & 2, LSP
Friday 2 December - Scholastic online book club orders due
Monday 5 December - Reports emailed home
Tuesday 6 December - Preschool M/T transition to Kinder

Tuesday 6 December - Year 6 Amaroo transition day
Tuesday 6 - Friday 9 December - Parent - teacher Yarns
Thursday 8 December - Preschool T/F transition to Kinder
Thursday 15 December - Year 6 Graduation
Friday 16 December - Year 6 fun day
Friday 16 December - Last day of term 4

Term 1 - 2023

Monday 30 January - M/T preschool, Kindergarten and new students start
Tuesday 31 January - All returning students start
Thursday 2 February - T/F preschool students start
Monday 27 February - Swimming carnival Years 2 -6

Communications Sent Home This Week

Notes and Emails Home

Unexplained absences - email
Year 6 transition to Amaroo - note
Pupil free day reminder - email
Parent-teacher Yarns - email

SMS Texts Home

Absences

Pupil Free Day

Reminder for parents/carers that the final teacher planning day is on Monday 28 November. Should you need to send your child to school on this day please contact the front office on 6142 1201 or via nevillebonnerps@ed.act.edu.au

Market Day

On Friday of week 5, our school had it’s Market Day. Everyone was pumped up on the day and the year 6’s helped set up tables ready for learning groups to come down and set-up their items for selling. The entire school was involved and the Monday-Tuesday preschoolers did their market day earlier on the Tuesday, and some of the year 6 leaders went down to preschool to help them. Everyone made their own small businesses and helped to raise a lot of money for the school.

Some of the stalls were:

Pick a fish
Hit the target
Basketball bonkers
Spray Away
Jaffa smash
Escape the Room
Ace Thrower
Pet Rocks
Pencil toppers
Fowling
And Much More!

Overall, Market Day was a success, and everybody enjoyed it. Here are some quotes about the day:

“I really enjoyed market day. It was terrific!” - Aya, Year 6.

“It was fun, there were lots of activities.” - Habibah, Year 5

“It was really good, I enjoyed hit the target.” - Kelly, Year 4

“It was very fun, I loved how you can find things easily.” - Sophie, Year 3

“My favourite thing was the face painting.” - Amy, Year 2

“I liked buying stuff for me and my family.” - Saxon, Year 1

“I would like to do market day again.” - Yamen, Kindergarten

“We did popcorn.” - Seleen, Preschool

Written by Keya, Year 6

Thank you for your support. We raised $2964 and had lots of fun doing it!

2023 Stationery/Book Packs

The stationery and books that your child requires for the 2023 school year are now available to be ordered through winc. As advised earlier in the year, we are moving to self-purchasing of stationery and book packs rather than making a contribution to the school. Families are requested to purchase the packs through winc as your child will need to have everything listed for the first day of the 2023 school year.

Stationery lists were emailed home and are available on the school website Book Packs - Neville Bonner Primary School (nevillebonnerps.act.edu.au)

Please visit the winc website Home Winc Schools and follow the instructions on the stationery list to place your order.

All orders placed by 29 December will be delivered to the school for free on the 26 January.

Orders placed after 29 December will be charged an additional $12.95 for delivery and the pack will be delivered to your home address for you to bring to school on the first day of the 2023 school year.

There are many payment options, even zip pay payment plans!

106.3 Christmas Giving Tree

We have a Christmas tree set up in reception for you to drop off donations for the MIX 106.3 pack the bus charity collection. Donations will be collected from the school and delivered to Communities@Work to be wrapped and packed for families in need this Christmas. Thank you for your generous donations of non perishable food items and unwrapped toys.

2023 Enrolments

Are you ready for the 2023 school year? Is your child transitioning to another school next year? It’s not too late to enrol your child in their local school. Make sure you submit your application before the current school term ends on 16 December 2022. Enrolment applications received after that date may not receive notification until late January 2023. For more information and to enrol, go to https://bit.ly/3Wnk7JQ

Positive Behaviours for Learning

PBL Focus Week 8 & 9

We use school equipment respectfully.

PBL Raffle Ticket Count

We have handed out 1263 tickets.

PBL Update

This week on Wednesday we had our whole school celebration to acknowledge that we have now given out 1000 raffle tickets acknowledging safe, respectful, learners. It was fantastic to see the students arrive with big smiles on their faces in lots of colourful clothes. Some of the teachers were also excited to celebrate with the students, wearing feather boas. You can see Janet, Kerry and Sylvia in the photo above celebrating our achievement.

We have a new whole school focus of using school equipment respectfully. This involves treating school furniture, play equipment, books, pencils etc with respect and care. To support us with this you can have a discussion with your child on what this looks like at home. How do you respect equipment at home and how might this also apply to school.

We have a new goal of 3000 raffle tickets. We are currently up to 1263 tickets. The PBL student team will assist us to decide what our next celebration might be. We will be acknowledging our PBL student leaders in assembly in week 8.

Amaroo Orientation

Kindergarten Learning Page

Reef Rescuers have been learning about what adjectives are and how we use them to make our writing more interesting. We also read some books, looked at different characters in the book and then together as a class brainstormed all the adjectives that best described them. For our learning area page, we came with the idea of writing 5 adjectives that best describe ourselves and presented them in a fun creative way.

Ruby: funny, kind, good, nice, fun.

Hamza: fast, healthy, smart, caring, funny

Violetta: good, fun, fast, smart, kind.

Elias: respectful, kind, friendly, smart, short.

Jordan: nice, friendly, fancy, smart, good

Darian: nice, caring, fast, funny, good.

Jordan B: kind, nice, fast, good, small.

Nur Humairah: healthy, kind, big, nice, tall

Abdullah: strong, fast, short, good, kind.

Harlow: kind, fast, good, tall, caring.

Mit Tar: fun, good, kind, smart, fast.

Hannah: kind, fancy, nice, big, fast.

Walter: nice, kind, fast, big, tall.

Ava: funny, caring, nice, kind, smart.

Aasher: funny, nice, friendly, cheerful, smart.

Tayyab: nice, kind, friendly, tall, fast.

Paige: good, nice, kind, strong, fast.

Anantdeep: smart, fast, tall, strong, funny.

Mila: fun, big, fast, nice, strong.

Year 6 Fundraiser

Parents' and Citizens' Association

Neville Bonner Parents and Citizens

Keep an eye on the School Newsletter and the Facebook group for event notices and updates.

The Neville Bonner Primary School Parents and Citizens (P&C) Association is the focal point for parent involvement at the school and provides a place for parents to discuss and debate matters of interest relating to the school and community.

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

Garden Working Bee

We will be holding a working bee THIS Saturday, 26th November, 9am to 1pm, to help Kerry tidy up the kitchen garden area off Mabo Blvd. We'd love your assistance, please email nevillebonnerps.pandc@gmail.com if you are available on the day, so that we can provide more information.

Entertainment Book

Your support for our fundraising at Neville Bonner Primary School P&C can now save you money everywhere you travel in the next 12 months.

For a limited time only, you can purchase a Single City Membership to the Entertainment App, and receive a bonus Multi City upgrade*, unlocking access to 20 cities and thousands of offers anywhere in Australia, New Zealand and Bali. And of course 20% of the membership goes directly to support our school fundraising at Neville Bonner Primary School P&C. Now you can enjoy the best restaurants, cafes, fine dining and shopping with your family while traveling - and donate to fundraising at our school. Get this limited-time offer at our fundraising page (LINK) : https://subscribe.entertainment.com.au/fundraiser/2787i1

Buy one for yourself, and for a loved one. Every purchase helps our fundraising effort.

Happy Hair Brush - Fundraiser

The game changer hairbrush! The Happy Hair Brush works on all hair types and makes brushing knotted, tangled and matted hair easy and pain free. Changing lives, one head, one heart at a time. The Neville Bonner Primary School P & C is using this fundraiser to enable families and friends of the school to get a fun, practical, game changing brush for themselves while raising money for the school. The school will receive 30% of all sales purchased through this site/app.

All orders will be delivered directly to the school though your child's classroom. If your friends and family wish to buy brushes, that's awesome just let them know they will need to order through this app and the brushes will be delivered through the school. Order yours today though this Neville Bonner P&C special link.

Testimonials: “The hairbrush felt gentle on my head and brushed the knots out so fast! I love this hairbrush and if someone told me to use my other hairbrush, I would say NO!! This everyday object is so GREAT!! (Keira, year 4). "The hairbrush was light and easy to use. With frizzy hair, it was difficult with dry hair, but works well (even with knots) if the hair had been shampoo and conditioned." From Parent of Jasmine (Year 1) and Brooke (Year 3)

Return-It Scheme

The P&C have registered with the Canberra Return-it scheme, you can donate to the P&C by using the mobile number (0497233172) or QR code. The process is:

- Place your bags of cans or bottles into a semi-see-through bag (they need to see it's not general household rubbish), a normal kitchen tidy bag is okay.

- Enter the phone number (or scan QR code), from the flyer, at the return point, follow the remainder of the instructions and attach the printed sticker to the bag.

- Deposit the bag(s) into the hopper.

- The bag(s) will be collected by the Return-It/CDS group and counted at one of their facilities (during a quiet period of their day).

- A notice of deposit will be received by the P&C - Thank you!!!

There are two, close to school, return points located at:

- Gungahlin: O'Brien Place - near the carwash, Gungahlin Vet and Goodyear tyres.

- Amaroo: near theschool oval off Horsepark Drive.

The returns generated from the scheme will assist the P&C to support the school, from sports equipment, school discos, Year 6 end-of-year surprises, etc.

Scholastic Book Club

Issue 8 catalogues are out and should have come home with your student. This will be the last one for the year. Issue 8 closure date will be on Friday 2 December.

Sorry, we can NOT accept cash orders through the front office, please place orders through the Scholastic Book Club LOOP website.

There is an option to select 'gift', during the order process, if you do not want your child to receive the order. If you select this option you will receive a phone call to collect your order at a different time. For every sale 20% is given to us in ‘rewards’ that the school can use to purchase resources from the catalogues.

Second Hand Uniform Shop

Neville Bonner Primary School P&C Second Hand Uniform Stall will be open on school grounds, under the school hall covered area, at the following opening hours.

** Week 8 - Wednesday, 30th November, from 8:45am to 9:45am.

** Week 9 - Wednesday, 7th December, from 2:45pm to 3:15pm.

** Week 10 - Wednesday, 14th December, from 8:45am to 9:45am.

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.