Newsletter: Term 4 - Week 4

A Message from the Principal

You will have received emails over the past few weeks with regards to book packs and subscription permissions. I will continue to put reminders in these in each newsletter. Alongside these, I will also put in a link to the form that we would like families who are intending on leaving Neville Bonner Primary School at the end of the year to fill in.

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

Christian Education at School - We have heard from the organisers of Christian Education in Schools who are looking to resume this service at Neville Bonner Primary School in 2023. The service will run for a one-hour long session per term and will be an opt in basis requiring parent permission. I have included an attachment of the permission note with this week’s newsletter and hard copies will be available at the front office should you wish your child to attend.

I would like to stress to all of our families that programs such as Islamic Education in Schools and Christian Education in Schools are not taught to all of our students. They are strictly based on parent permission and do not make up part of our school’s curriculum and reporting plans.

Sun Smart Hats – I’d like to remind all families that as summer approaches it is imperative that all students wear appropriate headwear to protect themselves from the sun. This does not include baseball caps. Sun smart hats are generally one of three types – legionnaire (a cap brim at the front with a neck protecting slips at the head), a bucket hat, or a broad brimmed hat. To ensure for our students safety, students who do not bring a suitable hat will be required to stay in the shade during break time.

Dates to Remember

Term 4

  • Thursday 10 November - Whole school Remembrance Day assembly

  • Friday 11 November - Remembrance Day

  • Friday 11 November - Market Day

  • Monday 14 & Tuesday 15 November - Year 5 puberty workshop

  • Tuesday 15 November - Preschool M/T Canberra Reptile Zoo excursion

  • Wednesday 16 November - Kindergarten 2023 information session

  • Friday 18 November - Preschool T/F Canberra Reptile Zoo excursion

  • Saturday 19 November - P & C portrait fundraiser

  • Tuesday 22 November - Year 3 leaf painting

  • Thursday 24 November - Community morning tea

  • Friday 25 November - Outdoor Year 5 & 6 band concert

  • Monday 28 November - Pupil free day


  • Thursday 1 December - Fizzics Education Science incursion - Year 1 & 2, LSP

  • Tuesday 6 December - Year 6 Amaroo transition day

  • 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 students return to school

  • Thursday 2 February - T/F preschool students start

Communications Sent Home This Week

Notes and Emails Home

  • Expired medication and action plan letters - email

  • Hannah maternity leave - email

  • Market day 2022 - email


SMS Texts Home

  • Absences



2023 Stationery/Book Packs

The stationery and books that your child requires for 2023 school year are now available to be ordered through winc.

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

Please head to the website Home Winc Schools and follow the instructions on the stationery list to 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 $12.95 and delivery will be to your home address.

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

Positive Behaviours for Learning

PBL Focus Week 4 & 5


We are in the right place at the right time.


PBL Raffle Ticket Count

We have handed out 600 tickets!!

Only 400 tickets to go!


PBL Update

We will be continuing on the focus We are in the right place at the right time. The PBL student group had their second meeting this week, where they discussed our acknowledgement system and what their thoughts and ideas are. We will also be explicitly teaching we are respectful to canteen staff. We will be practising using the canteen and using please and thank you when ordering.

This week we have sent home a copy of our PBL Matrix as an attachment to the newsletter. This matrix outlines all of the expectations in the different areas of the school. We are asking that if you have any feedback please complete this Google form. Please click on this link to complete the form. We would love to hear your thoughts on the different areas of the playground and how we can continue to make our school thrive.

Market Day

Neville Bonner Primary School will be hosting our annual Market Day in week 5 on Friday 11 October 2022.

Each Learning Group will develop and host their own stall, which could include a game, a craft item or food.

The children are asked to bring up to $5.00 each (no more) in a ziplock bag (labelled with their name) in loose coins on the day, so that they can visit a number of stalls.

All money raised on the day will be reinvested into the school to buy resources to support the children’s learning.

If you have any further questions about Market Day, please do not hesitate to ask your Learning Group teacher.

We look forward to a great Market Day!

Remembrance Day

Neville Bonner Primary School will be holding a Remembrance Day assembly on Thursday 10 November 2022 in the Hall.

The ceremony will commence at 10:30am and we extend an invitation to all Australian Defence families and encourage the wearing of uniforms for this occasion.


All Defence families with students at the school are welcome to join us. The assembly will be followed by light refreshments in the Community room.


Please RSVP to sam.diplock@ed.act.edu.au by Tuesday 8 November 2022, for catering purposes.

Amaroo Orientation

Year 1 Learning Page

The Coral experts have been learning about changes that we can observe in different objects and materials. They have been exploring this concept through mixing different solid and liquid materials together.


The students experimented by making a volcano in a cup. First, they had to predict what they thought would happen when bicarb soda and vinegar were mixed together. Some of their predictions were:

Saujenya- I think the volcano is going to explode slowly.

Tej- It will explode and go crazy.

Angela- It will explode and go fuzzy.

Arius- It will explode.

Qamar- I think that it will explode!


After they performed the experiment, they were asked to record their observations and findings. These included:

Lazarus- It bubbled and exploded, however, not everyones did.

Savannah- It bubbled and then came back down. It smelled disgusting!

Aisha- It overflowed with colour!

Lucinda- It blew up and then softened down.

Toby- It bubbled and exploded and then settled down.

Emma- It puffed up.

Elijah- After we poured the vinegar into the bicarb soda, blue bubbles exploded out of the cup.

Isla M- It went up and then came back down. It didn’t explode because we had to share it with others.


After performing the experiment, the students were asked about questions that they may have to further their knowledge on the experiment or on volcanoes. Some of the questions that had were:

Taisoni- What’s under the lava?

Isla S- Why did it turn green when we added the bicarb to black coloured vinegar?

Valinda- How do volcanoes turn into mountains?

Maxwell- How do volcanoes explode?

Year 6 Camp

Now if you have children in year six, you would know that the year sixes went to camp at Camp Cooba near Cooma, from the 26th of October to the 28th, during Week 3. We experienced so many fun activities and overall we had a lot of fun.


There were a lot of awesome activities, including the big swing, where you got to swing from 12 metres in the air. The low ropes course, which you had to help each other with getting in and out of a big tyre, and finally one of my favourites: Survivor! In this activity we got to push around a buggy style car through different obstacles and down a ramp into a big pool of water.


All the year sixes and teachers had a blast at camp. We ate so much good food, for example, lasagne, sausages, fish and chips, burgers, pasta, ice cream and so much more! There were also such nice instructors who organised the camp. They pushed us to try new things we had never done before.


Here are some quotes:

Charlotte said that camp was excellent and that she loved working together.

Callum, the teacher, said that camp was fantastic and he had so much fun.

Sahana said that camp was great and she loved everything that was over there!

Aya said that she would go back to camp again!


By Ariba, Year 6, Tide Turners

ACT Minister's Student Congress

The ACT Minister’s Student Congress was held during Week 2, on Friday the 21st of October. It was held to let students have their voices heard. It was new and exciting because the ACT Chief Minister was involved.


The selected Year 6’s sat together and were listening to people on a google meet with the rest of the selected kids from schools all over North ACT.


During the meet, we had to answer some questions like, “How could we get our voices heard across ACT?” and “How does your school take on feedback from students?” To answer them, we were separated into smaller groups and shared our answers with our individual hosts.


After we shared our thoughts in little groups, we would go back to the main meet and discuss our answers with everyone else. The Year 6’s thought it was an awesome opportunity and would like to do it again next time.


By Vedanti, Year 6

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 can be found on the P&C component of the school website.


Portrait Fundraiser - Saturday 19 November

After a two year break, we are very happy to be able to host the Family Portrait Fundraiser again.

This fundraiser gives families the opportunity to have a professional family portrait taken right here at school. You will receive a 10'x13'inch Family Portrait + Wallet Photo for $20, and you can choose to purchase more photos (with additional poses and digital images) if you wish.

This has always proven to be very popular, so if you are wanting to have your family portrait taken make sure to scan the QR code on the flier asap and confirm your appointment time.

Entertainment Book

Purchase this great online book full of entertainment vouchers and discount offers!! Single city books available for $69.99 or Multi city for $119.99. Did you know you can buy discounted vouchers, gift cards and presents with an Entertainment book?

There are some really great offers. Make sure you subscribe to access the amazing deals.

You can find the Entertainment book Official Site by clicking this link. Proceeds from each book purchased are donated to the P&C.

Happy Hair Brush - Fundraiser

The game changer hair brush! 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.

Testimonial: “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).

Canteen General

Our canteen is open for lunch five days a week, orders are via Flexischools website (https://flexischools.com.au/), the Flexischools App or cash direct to the canteen. Any cancellations must be advised prior to 9am on the day.

Remember, if you happened to forget to pick up some lunchbox items over the weekend, we have some great meal deals on Mondays and Tuesdays to ease the stress! See the menu - Canteen Menu - 2022

Birthday cupcakes

Our amazing canteen team offers birthday cupcakes! Cost is $30 per class, with orders required one (1) week in advance. To place an order, or for more information, please email canteennbps@gmail.com.

Over the counter sales.

The Canteen will have over the counter sales available for the following periods:

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: 11.15am to 11.45am - Break One.

Thursday and Friday: 1pm to 2pm - Break Two.

Our canteen will have some delicious snacks available for the children to buy. There will be freshly baked muffins and pikelets, popcorn, crackers, potato sticks, pretzels, fruit, yoghurt, juice, flavoured milk and more! Gluten free and halal options will be available. Prices start from $1.00, and this is a great way to learn and be responsible about handling money. Come and support your canteen and grab a yummy snack!

Scholastic Book Club

Issue 7 orders have been submitted to Scholastic and should be here in the next week or two.

Second Hand Uniform Shop

Neville Bonner Primary School P&C Second Hand Uniform Stall will be returning in Term 4, both Morning and afternoon sessions will be held, on school grounds, under the school hall covered area, at the following opening hours.

** Week 5 - Wednesday, 9th November, from 2:45pm to 3:15pm.

** Week 6 - Wednesday,16th November, from 8:45am to 9:45am.

*** SPECIAL EDITION

*** For the Preschool and Kindergarten Info Sessions on 16th November 2022 from 2.45pm.

** Week 7 - Wednesday, 23rd November, from 2:45pm to 3:15pm.

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

The available summer stock of shorts and skorts are now being displayed as we head into the warmer months. We have loads of pre-loved uniforms for sale. Preferred payment is via EFTPOS, however cash will be accepted. The photos provide an idea of the availability of stock.

If you have good quality school uniform items you no longer need, the P&C will gratefully accept your donation to our second hand

uniform stall through the canteen (or please place them in the tub near the front office).

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) attached to the newsletter. 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.

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.

Contact Information

Principal:

Will Johnston

william.johnston@ed.act.edu.au


Deputy Principals:

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

Sylvia Headon (3-6) sylvia.headon@ed.act.edu.au

P&C President:

Jayne Trustum nevillebonnerps.pandc@gmail.com


Board Chair:

Amani Kerr

Community Information