Principal's Update

Staffing classes continues to be a major challenge with an average of 3 staff off sick most days. We continue to try our best to employ day-to-day casual teachers to cover classes and I thank the flexibility and generosity of our support teaching staff who regularly step in to teach our students when we are unable to book a casual teacher. 

We have been fortunate to book Ms Gillmer to teach 3W on Mondays for the remainder of Term 3.  Ms Gillmer already teaches 3W on Tuesdays and works closely regarding curriculum and student wellbeing with Mrs Percincula.

I would also like to welcome Ms Burns to DPS. Ms Burns will be teaching 4/5G on Wednesdays as part of the NSW DoE’s QTSS (Quality Teaching Successful Students) program. 

Assistant Principals (AP's) have a teaching load but also lead stage teams of students and teachers. Due to the extra workload, AP's are entitled to additional RFF time (off class) as part of the QTSS program (Quality Teaching Successful Students) which is funded by the Department of Education. This QTSS time is not a new initiative and brings Assistant Principals in line with Head Teacher in high schools. QTSS is used to improve the teaching quality of teachers within their team as well as administration tasks and additional professional learning. 

I would also like to formally congratulate Mr Stopps who has been successful in filling the General Assistant role on a permanent basis. Mr Stopps has been a wonderful addition to DPS this year and we are very excited to know that he is staying put at Dundas. 

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning is our core business at Dundas Public School. Teachers are currently trialling different ways they can give their students effective feedback.

When teachers give effective feedback, students are provided with relevant, explicit, ongoing, constructive and actionable information about their performance against learning outcomes from the syllabus. This effective feedback encourages students to reflect on their work more deeply and empowers them to identify where and how they can improve.

There are two elements that are required for a teacher to provide effective feedback. The first is knowing where students need to get to (the learning outcome) and the second is finding evidence of where students are at (through assessment and observation).

Practical strategies for teachers to provide effective feedback include:

• Reflect and communicate about the learning task with students – For example, acknowledge students’ process or effort, either verbally or in the comments made on students’ work. For example, ‘I can see the effort you’ve put in. Your original method didn’t work, but you kept trying different approaches and you were able to solve the problem.’
• Provide students with detailed and specific feedback about what they need to do to achieve growth as a learner – For example, use a combination of feedback strategies (for example, feedback about the task and feedback about the process of the task) to provide students with information that is timely and directly connected to the learning intentions and success criteria.
• Encourage students to self-assess, reflect and monitor their work – For example, use rubrics, marking guidelines and work samples to support students with self-assessment. This could include breaking down the rubric or marking guidelines into language that is more appropriate and accessible for students, so that they can self-assess their work.
• Ensure that students act on feedback that they receive - provide targeted feedback in a timely manner so students have opportunities to action and apply the feedback.

The school is holding the School Fun Run’s Splash & Dash as the major school fundraising event this year!  The event will be held on Thursday, 15th September. We are really hoping to raise a minimum of $20,000 which will pay for new student laptops and iPads. 

We are three weeks out from our School Fun Run’s Splash & Dash! We hope students are working hard towards their fundraising goals!

Currently we have raised $13,106 of our $20,000 so there is a way to go and I hope you’ll keep supporting us! Remember, the money raised will be going towards new student laptops and iPads .

On the day we will need lots of empty 2L plastic bottles with their lids. We are hoping that our families can save their 2L plastic bottles and pop them into the 2 collection tubs located at the back entrance of the admin block. We estimate that we will need at least 200 2L plastic bottles for our fun run day.

So far, 3 teachers have been splashed at our Friday token assemblies. Mrs Zalaf made a video which has been shared on our Facebook page. We encourage everyone to check out the slow motion video of Ms Edwards, Mr Talevski and Mrs Percincula getting drenched!

Another 3 staff will be getting splashed this afternoon. I wonder which teachers will have their names selected from the box? 

If you’re having any trouble setting up your student profile or fundraising online, please get in touch with the Fun Run team on 1800 FUN RUN.

Thanks for supporting us with your fundraising efforts, we look forward to celebrating with an amazing day!

Check out a video of a school “Splash and Dash’ from the school fun run website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iArGd9R5MiM

Tell Them From Me surveys

Our school will be participating in the tell Them From Me suite of surveys (student, teacher and parent surveys) on student engagement. The survey asks parents and carers questions about different factors that are known to impact on student wellbeing and engagement.

Running this survey will help our school understand parents’ and carers’ perspectives on their child’s experience at school. These include: communication between parents/carers and staff, activities and practices at home and parent/carer views on the school's support of learning and behaviour. This valuable feedback will help our school make practical improvements.

The survey is conducted entirely online on smartphones, iPads, tablets, laptops or computers. The survey will typically take 15 minutes or less to complete and is completely confidential. Although participating in the survey is entirely voluntary, your responses are very much appreciated.

Our school will provide further information about how to access the survey via SkoolBag.

Primary Students Survey (Years 4-6) 

Students will be participating in this survey in the coming weeks. If you do not want your child to participate, please complete the non-consent form that will be shared with families next week.

The Tell Them From Me student survey asks students about a range of school experiences, including their engagement and wellbeing at school and beyond. It also asks students about teaching practices and the learning environment.

The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete.

Check In Assessments for Years 3,4,5 and 6

During Terms 3 and 4, students will participate in the Check-in assessment. The Check-in assessment is a NSW Department of Education online literacy and numeracy assessment available to support schools to assess and monitor student learning. The assessment can supplement existing school practices to identify how students are performing in literacy and numeracy and to help teachers tailor their teaching more specifically to student needs. Students with a disability may receive the same level of support during the assessment they would normally receive in the classroom. 

• The assessment will be scheduled for our Year 6 students during Weeks 8 –10, Term 3 

• Students in Years 3, 4, 5 will complete their assessments during weeks 1-4 in Term 4 

• All students complete a reading assessment and a numeracy assessment. Year 6 students will also complete a writing task 

Students are asked to bring headphones that plug into a computer to enable them to hear audio during the assessment.

2023 Planning

In order to assist with planning for 2023, we will be sending out a form in Week 9 to each family requesting information on students returning to Dundas Public School next year. This will help us with a great deal, especially when it comes to staffing.

Demountable classroom upgrade

We have received good news yesterday that our 6 demountable classrooms will have new carpet laid and be freshly painted internally and externally. This scope of works will be quite disruptive to these classes but it is unavoidable. 

These classrooms include 2B, 2M, 3W, 3/4B, 4D and the Fun Club room. The double demountable classroom of 2B and 2M will also receive a new roof. 

School PSSA cancellations

Unfortunately, PSSA was cancelled again this week. I wanted to ensure that the community understands that the local council makes the decision to close council grounds and notifies the affected PSSA associations once the decision is made.  We hope that in the coming weeks we will be able to resume having our regular PSSA competitions on Friday mornings.

Lost property

There is currently a large amount of lost property, particularly school jackets. If your child has lost an item of their uniform or a lunch box, please remind them to look for it at lost property.

Please ensure that all your child’s belongings have been labelled so they can be returned. Also, please check that your child has their own belongings and that they have not taken home another child’s hat or jacket.

School Bytes

As you are already aware, we have introduced an online platform that we will be using to share permission notes with our families. The platform is called 'School Bytes' and is a quick and efficient method of receiving and processing permission notes. 

Families will receive an email from Dundas Public School with the online permission note. Parents and carers will be able to easily open the email, read the information in the note, give permission and sign the document straight away on any device. Permission notes that require payment will have a link straight to our payment tab on the school website. 

As stated previously, our intention is to not send home paper information/permission notes starting this term. Please contact the school is you have recently changed your email address so your contact information can be updated. 

** We currently have many outstanding permission notes for upcoming school events. It would be appreciated if parents and carers could please complete the approval process on School Bytes as soon as possible.

2023 Kindergarten enrolments

We are currently accepting enrolments for 2023. Families need to complete an online enrolment form for DPS. General enrolment information can be found on the NSW Department of Education website.

Enrol in a NSW public primary school | Service NSW

Online Enrolment is a web-based system which will allow parents to submit an application to enrol a child in a local intake area in a NSW Government School. The online form can be accessed from the enrolment page on the school's website. 

Online Enrolment (nsw.gov.au)

The information once completed by the parent, will be submitted to the school through the Online Enrolment School Interface. Our School Administrative Support Staff are then able to review and edit the enrolment application submitted by the parent/carer and send to the Enrolment and Registration Number (ERN) system.

The NSW Education Department Enrolment Policy has been revised to support schools to manage all enrolment applications, encourage greater consistency in decision-making and make sure the enrolment choices are clear for parents.

The enrolment cap is the number of students that can be enrolled at a school based on the school’s permanent accommodation. The enrolment cap tells us whether the school will be able to accept non-local enrolments. Schools with a local intake area have a cap set by the department.

Within the enrolment cap, a number of enrolment places (the buffer) must be kept aside for the likely number of local students who will need to enrol during the year. For this reason, a school will not take non-local students once they reach their buffer, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

We invite families to visit the school website and select ‘Enrolment’ to start the Kindergarten enrolment process. 

A link to the 2023 DPS Kindergarten Transition website is below. It contains lots of information that will be very useful to new DPS families. 

2023 DPS Kindergarten Transition website

We will be offering Orientation visits for new Kindy students and their parents/carers in Term 4 which will include classroom visits, school information/tour and the Dundas Expo!

We are excited to announce that we will also be offering Big School Visits on selected Friday afternoons from 2-3pm which will focus on school readiness and include a school tour for new families. 

We have organised a Kindergarten 2023 postcard that will be dropped off at neighbouring preschools over the coming weeks. There is a handy QR code on the postcard to meet it easy for families to book a big school visit.

Communication platforms

COVID Update (reminder from previous newsletter)

What’s new in Term 3?

As winter continues, our COVID-smart measures have been updated in consultation with NSW Health to provide appropriate protection to our school community.

Vaccinations

The department has updated its policy regarding COVID-19 vaccination for employees following an independent risk assessment of school (and corporate) settings and consultation with unions and relevant stakeholders. While vaccination is no longer be a requirement for our staff from 1 August 2022, it is pleasing to see that a recent survey highlighted that more than 99% of the department’s active school-based workforce have had at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. We will continue to strongly encourage all our staff to keep up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations as a way of protecting themselves, students, and our school community.]

Boosted day cleaning

The department has made a slight change to its cleaning process. Cleaning of school sites will now be more concentrated during the day, with an increase in cleaning in school hours, and a subsequent reduction out of hours. Boosted day cleaning will continue to focus on high-touch areas and other hard surfaces, door handles, lockers, light switches and handrails in stairways and movement areas.

What’s continuing for Term 3?

Masks 

Masks are an effective way of minimising the transmission of respiratory viruses and infections, and protecting our community, especially those who are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and flu. We strongly encourage all students and staff wear a mask for the first 4 weeks of Term 3, particularly in indoor settings or when distancing is not possible. The latest NSW Health advice also recommends wearing a mask for people who have recovered from COVID-19 and recently completed their 7-day isolation period for an additional 3 days (from days 8 to 10 after receiving a positive COVID-19 result). Additionally, as outlined in the below section on household contacts, mask wearing is mandatory for staff and high school students returning to school as household contacts for 5 school days and strongly recommended for primary school students returning to school as household contacts for 5 school days. Students or staff identified as household contacts who are unable to wear a mask will be supported to learn or work remotely.

Rapid antigen tests (RATs)

If you require additional RATs let the school know that you need more and we will try and assist. Additionally, our school will be maintaining a reserve stock of RATs onsite to support symptomatic testing in the event of an outbreak in our school community. Please also remember that positive RAT results must be registered with ServiceNSW, and students who test positive to COVID-19 must not attend school until their isolation period ends and they are symptom free.

Household contacts

Students identified as household contacts remain able to attend school providing they are symptom free, notify the school and return a negative COVID-19 test result daily for 5 consecutive school days. Primary students, while not required, are strongly encouraged to wear a mask for 5 consecutive school days (except when eating/drinking or exercising).

Responding to our local situation 

We will continue to liaise with NSW Health and the department’s Health, Safety and Staff Wellbeing Case Management team to ensure our COVID-smart settings keep up with the latest developments. If local conditions require it, this may mean reintroducing temporary additional COVID-smart measures to act as a ‘circuit breaker’, including:

• mandating mask wearing for all staff and students in Year 7 and above (high school settings)
• mandating mask wearing for all staff (primary school settings)
• postponing or limiting non-essential activities like excursions, indoor assemblies and visitors to the school
• directing cohorts to learn remotely for short periods of time.
• Maximising natural ventilation. The department has reviewed environmental differences across NSW as part of their winter ventilation planning to ensure that local climatic conditions at each school are considered. The department will continue to provide local guidance to schools, including advice on maximising natural ventilation while balancing thermal comfort and the use of indoor and outdoor learning areas for school activities to support schools to adapt to local climate conditions throughout the winter months.

Reducing the risk of illness this winter

Finally, it is important to note NSW Health’s advice to reduce our risk of not only COVID-19, but other illnesses that may affect our school at this time of year such as the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) both of which can be serious in younger people. We can all protect our loved ones and our community by:

• staying home and getting tested if unwell or displaying any symptoms
• keeping up to date with our vaccinations – including the flu vaccine, which is available from your local GP, pharmacy or Aboriginal Medical Service now. Flu vaccines are free for all children aged 6 months to under 5 years, or for a small charge for those aged 5 years and older
• getting tested immediately for COVID-19 if you become symptomatic and isolating until you receive a negative result and are symptom free
• practicing good hand hygiene by washing regularly with soap and water
• taking a RAT before vising vulnerable loved ones or going to large gatherings

Kind regards,

Lee Shipley

Principal