Dear Parents/ Carers,

Welcome to the Week 6 Newsletter.

STAFF NEWS

We farewelled Mrs Samantha Craig this week. We wish Mrs Craig all the very best as she commences maternity leave. We look forward to sharing her special news down the track. Mrs Craig’s position will be replaced by Mrs Tannous, working every Monday.

COVID-SMART MEASURES UPDATE

Our COVID-smart measures continue to be in place to help reduce the risk of transmission for students and staff members and are vital in allowing us to keep our schools operational while prioritising student and staff wellbeing. These measures include:

Staying home if unwell and test for COVID-19 if showing any symptoms
Strongly encouraging masks to be worn by all students, staff and visitors, particularly when indoors, and if exposed to COVID-19
Maintaining natural ventilation with windows and doors open whenever possible, including when cooling/heating systems are in use
Continuing to provide RATs and other hygiene products to schools free of charge.

RECONCILIATION WEEK - 27 MAY - 3 JUNE

National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. This week children have been set a challenge - they need to design a symbol/ image to represent a new name for one of our sports houses. The design must be connected to a Darug word. For example, the darug word for wombat is ‘wambady’. This is just one way of how we are all learning about local history and culture. Teachers will be sharing lots of examples with the children this week. Today is ‘Wear it Yellow Day’ - we encourage everyone to wear yellow and donate a gold coin to Children’s Ground - a community led approach to changing the future for First Nations children. Money raised will enable First Nations communities to become places of safety, hope and opportunity.

BIKE VISITS WITH MR PITT

Over the last fortnight I visited numerous support programs in and around the school. All programs focus on improving the Literacy and Numeracy learning outcomes for our students at Fairvale PS. Due to additional COVID funding, we have been able to continue these specialist programs for the duration of 2023. What I noticed most when I visited each group was the hard work everyone was putting in. Frankie would be happy to see the children showing grit when learning new words, comprehending texts, solving numeracy problems and investigating numbers to 10. Congratulations to all our learners who have been attending these support groups this term, meeting the high expectations set by the teachers. A big thank you to Mrs Terzian, Mrs Borg, Mrs Jewo, Mrs Pereira, Miss Bella, Mrs Li and Mr Misitano. I have had an amazing fortnight, riding my bike back and forth to the Fishbowl classroom.

Check out some of the photos in this edition of the newsletter.

ATTENDANCE MATTERS – everything is great when you’re not late!

As well as a commitment to improving Literacy and Numeracy outcomes across the school, student attendance remains a big component of our strategic improvement plan 2021-2025. At Fairvale PS we have always been vigilant with students attending school each and every day. We work with families all the time by providing strategies to follow to ensure school-aged students attend school every day. One area that we remain to focus on is lateness. We can have anywhere between 25 to 45 students late every day – this number is way too high! We understand that from time to time some factors are out of our control and this makes everyone late – that’s okay! Our focus is on families that are consistently late. Please do your best to ensure your children are at school before 9am. Don’t forget that Yum Club is open every day from 8.30-8.55am if you prefer to have your children eat breakfast at school.

PARENT/ TEACHER INTERVIEWS

We are currently planning for our annual COVID-smart face-to-face parent/ teacher interviews in Week 10. The dates are below

A note will be sent home next Wednesday outlining how families complete the online booking form. I am hoping all families request an interview time to meet with the teacher. Be mindful that your child’s teacher has up to 20 or more parents to see during the afternoon/ evening so book in as soon as you receive the note.

Semester One Reports will be going home on Thursday 22 June, 2023.

ROAD SAFETY - LISTEN UP!

I continue to keep this message in the newsletter because it remains a big concern. Congratulations to the Fairvale students who not only know about the importance of road safety but can demonstrate it every day. Unfortunately, some of our parents are forgetting the importance of safe road safety practices. I understand that people are busy and need to be places, but there is no excuse to walk straight across a busy road, at 3pm, taking no notice of any traffic, when there is a pedestrian crossing 20 metres away - it just doesn’t make any sense! The same can be said drivers who decide to stop and wait in the car for children to jump in the middle of the road; totally ignoring those drivers in the kiss and drop zone who are doing the right thing.

Please do not be offended when I call you out on these unsafe practices - there is absolutely no negotiation when it comes to road safety. Ensure that you follow the road rules; fines are expensive and local police officers will continue to monitor the traffic in and around our school. You do not want to be booked - the fines are very expensive.

REPEATED: STAY HOME IF YOU ARE SICK

All adults on site will be healthy and ready to work and we expect the same from our children and their families. If children are unwell at school, you or your nominated emergency contact will need to collect them immediately. Please make sure your contact details are up to date. Check out the link below.

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/infectious/influenza/Pages/default.aspx

Life in Australia Survey (srcentre.com.au)

Have a great fortnight,

Anthony Pitt

Principal

I respect and acknowledge First Nations people as the traditional owners of the land on which I work, live and visit.

Learning Hub > Parents and carers (nsw.gov.au)

Testing positive to COVID-19 and managing COVID-19 safely at home | NSW Government

Register a positive rapid antigen test result | NSW Government

Advice for families (nsw.gov.au)

Translated documents are here >>>>>>>> COVID smart measures for schools (nsw.gov.au)

https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/rights-and-accountability/complaints-compliments-and-suggestions/guide-for-parents-carers-and-students

Premier’s Back to School NSW program to get your kids ready for back to school

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we prepare for another year of learning in 2023, you can now apply for the Premier’s Back to School NSW program, offering $150 worth of vouchers (3 x $50 vouchers) to help pay for school supplies like school uniforms, shoes, bags, textbooks and stationery.

Every primary and secondary school student in NSW is eligible for the vouchers.

You can apply for and access your vouchers in your MyServiceNSW account, in the Service NSW app, by calling Service NSW on 137788 or by visiting your local Service Centre External Link.

To be eligible, your child needs to be a NSW resident and enrolled in a NSW primary or secondary school in 2023.

For more information, visit the Service NSW Website External Link.

Kind regards,

Anthony Pitt

Principal

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