GENERAL NEWS

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT COLLECTION OF DATA

SCHOOL OPEN MORNING

Do you know of a family interested in applying for Kindergarten in 2025 and beyond and would like to know more about St Nicholas school? We are hosting an school "Open Morning". Please share with anyone you know who may be interested in attending. 

COMPASS MEDIA CONSENT

IMPORTANT !!! Please make sure that you jump onto COMPASS and approve or decline the Media Consent event for your child or children.

STUDENT TRAVEL

TERM 1 PRIMARY ROAD SAFETY 2024

Safety Town

Safety Town is a road safety education resource for teachers, students and families. It provides a variety of interactive learning activities for students from Kindergarten to Year 6. Teachers are provided with comprehensive teaching notes to support the use of the interactive activities, and support learning as part of PDHPE, English, Science and Mathematics

 www.safetytown.com.au

AFTERNOON COLLECTION POINTS

We would like to take this opportunity early in the term to explain our afternoon pick up procedures as we know there are many new families to our school. 

Car Pickups: Join the line of cars down Roderick Street and follow them along Carthage St in front of the school Auditorium. You will need to have a sign displayed in your windscreen with your child's name written on it in large letters. Please remain in your car and your child will be brought out of the Auditorium. Children using this pick up need to be able to enter their car from the footpath side and do up their own seatbelt. This afternoon procedure is in place between 2.55 - 3.20pm 

Hill St Pick up/Footpath Pick Up: 'Footpath Pickup'. Please park your car and wait outside the gate at the bottom of Hill Street. This is an option for parents who prefer to get out of their car to collect their children. This afternoon procedure is in place between 2.55 - 3.05pm 

Crossers and Walkers: Please wait on the opposite side of Carthage St (to the school) and your child will be brought across the road. Supervising teachers will accompany children along Carthage St to each corner (Hill St and Roderick St). Children must be collected by a parent/carer. As a duty of care if a child is walking home or to a place of work, parents need to communicate this arrangement with their child's class teacher. This afternoon procedure is in place between 2.55 - 3.05pm. Any child that has not been picked up between these times will be brought back to school grounds to be picked up from Car Pick up. 

Buses: Students are supervised by teachers until their bus arrive.

Esteem After School Care: We have Esteem Before and After School Care located in our demountables. Please collect your child by entering and exiting through the gate in Hill Street. We ask parents to not use the driveway next to the school as it is one way and we share this driveway with our neighbour.

PUPIL FREE DAYS

The following are the Pupil Free Days for the remainder of 2024.

Please mark in your diary....

• Monday 27th May
• Friday 5th July
• Monday 22nd July
• Monday 14th October
• Thursday 19th December
• Friday 20th December

PARENT INFORMATION EVENING

Next Wednesday 21st February our annual Parent Information Evening will be held at St Nicholas School. 

The details of the evening are as follows: 

The evening will begin in the HUB at 6pm. There will be a short introduction to the night where Mr Clery will address everyone. From there we will hold two session. 

First session: 6.15pm - 6:45pm.

Second session: 6:55pm - 7:25pm (the second session is a repeat of the first for families who have more than 1 child at school)

To ensure everyone’s safety, we ask parents to please not attend the evening if you are feeling unwell or have any COVID like symptoms. We will be hosting a creche in the Library if alternative arrangements cannot be made for children. We look forward to seeing some familiar faces and meeting new ones as we start our 2024 school year. Here is an outline of where each grade will meet. 

Grade Meeting Areas

SCHOOL UNIFORM - We wear it with pride!

At St Nicholas School we have high expectations with wearing our uniform with pride. We therefore seek parent and student support with wearing our uniform correctly each day. Each week for every student our sports uniform is to be worn Monday, Wednesday and Friday and our formal uniform is to be worn on Tuesday and Thursday.

We understand that at times students may need to wear an alternate piece of attire because of an unforeseen circumstance. If this is the case please email your child's class teacher to let them know.

NORMAN UPDATE 

Weekends of late have provided Norman (our new wellbeing dog) with the perfect opportunity to visit St Nicholas and familiarize himself with our school environment. Meanwhile, our students have begun learning how we can help Norman feel relaxed and calm when he soon begins his weekday visits. The key to success is making sure we all know the three expectations.

Parents/carers will soon receive a Compass event called “Wellbeing Dog Parent Feedback Opportunity”. Please take a few moments to complete this tick-a-box form so we are aware of such considerations as allergies, fears, experiences etc. This is very important so we can ensure our work with Norman is safe, inclusive and successful. 

Don’t forget to take a look at the following website:  Dogs Connect The 2 minute videos in the “Case studies/Testimonials” tab are fantastic (and very heart-warming). 

Keep an eye out for further doggo updates

SUPERVISION OF STUDENTS

All parents need to be aware, our supervision of students

does not begin until 8.15am each day.

St Nicholas School gates will not be open until the arrival of the first school bus at approximately 8.10am. It is not appropriate for children to be at school before this time with no supervision. 

If your child/ren require care before 8.15am you may like to consider before school care here at school with Esteem.  

DONATION REQUEST FOR OUR STUDENT GARDEN/PLAY AREA

As we recently reported, our student garden area continues to delight our students. To further add to such joy, perhaps you have some items at home that you no longer need and would be happy to donate. We are seeking: small fairy toys/ornaments; match box cars; tiny toys (such as figurines, McDonalds toys etc); outdoor play kitchen and outdoor child-sized fairy style  furniture.

NAPLAN INFORMATION: Year 3 and Year 5

Each year the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is undertaken by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Students will participate in tests for writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. 

NAPLAN 2024 will take place from Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March. A more detailed timetable for St Nicholas' schedule will be distributed soon.

NAPLAN is just one part of our school learning assessment program. The tests assess literacy and numeracy skills your child is already learning at school. 

In preparation for NAPLAN, our school will undertake activities to help students become familiar with the format and functionality of the online tests. These activities are not an assessment of student ability and will not be marked. 

The public demonstration site (https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site) is available to see the types of questions, tools and functions used in the NAPLAN tests.

Further information about NAPLAN is available on the NESA website (https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/naplan/parent-information). 

If you have any questions about NAPLAN, please contact Amanda Doyle or Shelly O'Sullivan (Leaders of Pedagogy).

SRC Term 1

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected by their peers to be the class representative on the Student Representative Council.

3T - Harper Charlesworth

3I - Sophia Mitchell

3C - Nellie Cook

4M - Max Collett

4P - Hudson Barnes

4B - Stella Clery

5H - Priya Hitchcock

5M - Cleo Cook

5W - Willow Bird

COVID INFORMATION

At the end of 2022, National Cabinet announced that people who test positive to COVID-19 do not need to isolate. In line with this announcement, schools will continue to follow guidance issued by NSW Health to support the safety and wellbeing of our school communities. 

Staff and Students with COVID-19 Symptoms

If a student or staff member is unwell and has any symptoms they should always test for COVID-19 and not attend school until they are symptom free. 

Positive COVID-19 Cases

If a student or staff member receives a positive result with a RAT or PCR test they should:

1. Record the positive result through the Services NSW website or App.
2. Notify school of positive results as soon as possible.