Dear families,

It's been a busy few weeks at Modbury School P-6. It is great to see the beanies being worn in the schoolyard as the weather becomes colder. Please make sure you have labelled your child's belongings, so we know who to return lost property to. We are starting to get a collection of lost property build up again and would like to return items back to their owners. If your child is missing a lunch box, drink bottle or items of clothing, please pop into the Front Office and look through our lost property box and reclaim your missing items.

As the cold weather is now upon us, it is important that our children are dressed in our school colours. We are starting to see various coloured jumpers and coats that are not part of our uniform colours.

As the winter months are now approaching, we are starting to see an increase in sickness here at school. While the close interactions and collaborative natures of our classrooms are fantastic for learning, they also mean that students unfortunately pass illnesses around quickly. We appreciate that it can be difficult to make a decision as a parent to determine if your child is "sick enough" to stay away from school, but are asking for your support in keeping sick children home. This is important for keeping our community healthy, and is particularly crucial here at Modbury, as we do have numerous families with medical conditions and compromised immunities.

Our teachers are in the process of preparing and writing mid-year reports. These reports will be emailed to families in the last week of school. School reports are important tool for communicating student achievement and progress and are an opportunity to reflect on half a year of learning for each child and set goals for further learning and development throughout the second half of the year.

Over the past 2 weeks, the following events have occurred.

Culture Day at Modbury School

Culture Day - what a beautiful day! It was so wonderful to celebrate the many different cultures at Modbury School on our annual Culture Day. A big thank you to Mrs Flavel and Mrs Young for their planning of this event. Please see the section in our newsletter where we have shared some more information about this event.

National Simultaneous Storytime - 'Bowerbird Blues'

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) was celebrated on Wednesday 22nd May at 12 noon across the nation. This event puts a spotlight on the important place of reading and libraries in schools. The book chosen for NSS was ‘Bowerbird Blues’. Bowerbird Blues stars a beautiful bowerbird on the search for BLUE! It’s a story of longing and connection, that unfolds as the bowerbird’s search sends him soaring across the sea, sky and city. He swoops and snatches vibrant treasures for his collection, and soon his bower – a mix of natural and unnatural objects – attracts something greater and more fulfilling than he could ever have imagined!

Reading is an important life skill and provides a great opportunity for families to connect (one of our school values); when we read together it helps language development, learning and literacy. At Modbury School P-6 we aspire for all children to develop an interest and passion for reading.

Students at Modbury School all enjoyed listening to this story being read by either their teacher or listening to the live event where 2 million students joined online to listen alon. Our students were so engaged as they learnt about Bowerbirds and munched away on a small bag of popcorn to further build the love of reading across our school.

Reconciliation Week

The dates for National Reconciliation Week remain the same each year; 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

Reconciliation must live in all Australians' hearts, minds and actions as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We all have a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part we collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures, and futures.

A brief history of National Reconciliation Week: National Reconciliation Week (NRW) started as the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation in 1993 (the International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples) and was supported by Australia’s major faith communities. In 1996, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation launched Australia’s first National Reconciliation Week. In 2001, Reconciliation Australia was established to continue to provide national leadership on reconciliation. In the same year, approximately 300,000 people walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of National Reconciliation Week and subsequently across bridges in cities and towns to show their support for reconciliation.

Today, National Reconciliation Week is celebrated in workplaces, schools and early learning services, community organisations and groups, and by individuals Australia-wide.

(information taken from https://www.reconciliation.org.au/our-work/national-reconciliation-week/)

Working Bee

Thank you to the staff, parents and community volunteers who were able to support our Working Bee on Saturday 18th May. We had a productive morning and were able to complete various jobs in our school yard.

repainted the fencing near the sandpit
mulched the preschool garden beds
mulched garden beds within the school yard
oiled the wooden bench and paths in our Nature Play area
big cleanup in our kitchen garden
moved a large rock pile to our kitchen garden
rehomed some large plants to our staff car park
rehomed some plants to our outdoor STEM learning space

Raising Literacy Preschool Packs

Raising Literacy Australia has gifted our preschool children 'Reading Book Bags', which we will receive soon for our children. This organisation work with the community to improve literacy levels in children from infancy. Our specially designed early childhood initiatives help families to engage and read with their children as early as possible so they can reach their full learning potential. Their initiatives include:

Book Gifting
Building Home Libraries
Featured Stories
Read to Me
Mentoring Emerging Artists

Warm regards,

Sara, Ali and Sheila.

Leadership Team

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