Dear Parents

It was great to return to school this week after an additional week of leave after the school holidays. It was wonderful to see the children and staff back and fully engaged with their learning. Term 4 is going to be extremely busy time, and every minute will count!

On Tuesday, I had the great privilege of travelling to Sydney with our Choir and Mrs Cafe to perform at the Opera House. Our choir representatives were Amber Rochester, Kaelahni Finn, Ruby Cole, Amira Buttsworth, Sophie Francis, Corey Miller, Georgie Weal, Nate Hefferen, Ayaan Ali, Tayah Ellis, Madalyn Robb, Ruby Canham, Demi Forrest, Ruby Shaw, Lillian Fell and Katherine Taylor-Mena. This year I actually got to sit with the children and perform as part of the 870-person choir—what a sensational experience. Our children were simply amazing. The sound they created was absolutely beautiful. Well done to our children and Mrs Cafe for their work preparing to participate in this wonderful event. Thank you to the many parents who travelled to Sydney to watch the performance. I know you were as proud of the children as I was. Thank you all.

The tickets to our school concert matinee and evening performances are now on sale through the Bathurst Memorial Centre (BMEC) box office and online site. A reminder that our school concert will be held on Wednesday 23rd November. All children will perform in the concert for both the matinee and evening performances. Our audience will be thrilled with the items that our children and staff are working hard rehearsing.

Last week, Salman and Max represented Western Region for cricket at the NSW PSSA Cricket Championships in Dubbo. Unfortunately, the weather was not the best, and some games were rained out, but the boys did manage to get in 3 games, winning 1. Both Max and Salman batted well, and Max tookfour4 wickets. Well done, boys, and congratulations on representing your region.

Today we havefive5 children representing Bathurst Public School and Western Region at the NSW PSSA Athletics Carnival at Homebush. Congratulations to Lara Glasgow, Ruby Cole, Sophie Francis and Grace Ronan (Senior Girls Relay Team) and Tim Lynch (Senior Boys Discus) on their outstanding performances today. We are so proud of all of these children.

You're invited to participate in the Tell Them From Me Partners in Learning survey designed for parents and carers. Your feedback will be used to make practical improvements and to inform school planning. The online survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. It is completely anonymous and voluntary.

Follow the link below on your device to complete the survey in your own time. The survey closes on Friday 4th November 2022:

http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/batps

Current COVID guidelines - the current COVID guidelines for all NSW Public Schools are as follows;

Staff members and children should not attend school if they display COVID symptoms. Likewise, if staff or children become unwell and display COVID symptoms throughout the day, they will be sent home.
If any parents, friends or visitors are COVID-positive, they are asked not to attend the school site or school functions.
Additional cleaning will continue across the school day
The Department of Education strongly encourages mask wearing
Staff in Support Unit settings are required to wear a mask
Additional rapid antigen tests are available from the school if required
We are required to inform the community when positive cases of COVID occur at the school

QR Codes - All parents, friends and visitors that visit any NSW Public School site, are required to QR code in. QR codes have now replaced sign in/sign out books in schools and allow us to have all persons on-site at any time recorded electronically. This is vitally important at all times but especially in the case of any emergency situation. At the click of a button, we have all children, staff and visitors on our site recorded electronically and can be used if the situation arises. QR codes are our new normal and the department has supported this by providing all schools with ipads and unique school QR code identifiers.

Entry to school - throughout the school day, all gates are closed and locked for the safety and security of all of our children and staff. Any parents, friends or visitors must enter through the main gate in George Street between 9 am-3 pm. Access can be obtained by pressing the buzzer which will then ring into the office. The office staff will then speak through the intercom and can allow access to the school site.

If any parent has any queries about any aspect of school life, please contact the school.

Regards

Kate White

Principal