Dear Parents and Carers,

New school garden area

Last year, Mrs Benco applied for a $15,000 grant from Sustainable School Grants, and we were successful! The idea behind the grant proposal was to create a cultural garden within the school that would include garden beds representing the different cultural groups that make up the DPS school community. The vision was that each cultural group would be welcome to grow, tend and use plants native to their culture in dishes cooked at home. 

Through the amazing efforts of our General Assistant, Mr Stopps and Mrs Benco, we are excited to announce that our Cultural Food Garden is nearing completion! It has been a massive project to bring to fruition for Mr Stopps and I thank him for the many long hours he invested into the garden for our students and school community.

You may notice in some of the photos that there are small green cylinders positioned in some of the garden beds. They are ‘worm hotels’ that will help keep our garden beds rich with nutrients. They will be managed by Mrs Benco.

Mrs Benco, EAL/D students and the DERT group (Dundas Environmentally Responsible Team) have been working hard to grow plants in our mobile ‘Stacky’ vertical gardens with the idea that they could be replanted in our new garden beds when they were ready.

Each class has a compost bin, and we are encouraging students to place their food scraps in the class compost bins that will then be used to grow food in our gardens.

Invitations to our families

We invite DPS families to bring in their household compost scraps either before school or at afternoon pick-up. Please refer to the posters above as to what scraps can be placed in the large new black and green compost bins.

We invite volunteers to water the garden beds either before school or at afternoon school pick up. If you are interested in helping water our plants, please contact the school office to leave your contact details and Mrs Benco will be in touch with you to arrange a schedule.

Within a few weeks, families will be invited to pick some of the produce to take home and include in meals to encourage healthy eating habits.

** If you are a keen gardener and would be assist in this project, please contact the office. We are particularly keen to hear from different cultural groups interested in growing food typically used in dishes from your cultural heritage. We would love to hear from you!

Thank you to ‘Piccolo Me’

A local café, ‘Piccolo Me’ contacted the school offering to donate 50 free kids meal vouchers for our students. The vouchers entitle the winner to a free meal, either a junior beef burger, a humpty dumpty meal or a chicken nugget meal. We are awarding a ‘Piccolo Me’ voucher to students receiving a gold award. We thank Piccolo Me for their support and generosity.

Piccolo Me is located at 1 Brodie St, Rydalmere.

Adult toilet (reminder from previous newsletter)

We have noticed some adults using the student toilets at morning drop-off, afternoon pick-up or school events. Due to child protection requirements, student bathrooms are to be used by our students only.

There is a toilet available for adult use. It is located next to the school canteen. Please do not lock the toilet when you are finished to ensure others can access the facilities.

Students and medication (reminder from previous newsletter)

A friendly reminder that students are not permitted to have medication in their bags or on their person while at school. Students are not allowed to self-administer pain tablets (such as Panadol, Nurofen etc) or prescribed medication.

When a medical practitioner has prescribed medication that must be administered during the school day, parents/carers must:

• notify the school

• provide up to date information as required

• supply the medication and any 'consumables' necessary for its administration in a timely way.

Parents/carers of children who require prescribed medication to be administered at school must complete a written request. Please contact the school office for the relevant document.

All medication must be in its original container and labelled with the student’s name, dosage, name of medication. Students must not carry medications unless there is a written agreement between the school and the student's parents/ carers.

Kindergarten enrolment for 2024. (reminder from previous newsletter)

Dundas Public School is now taking online enrolments for Kindergarten 2024.

Go to our school website and select the enrolment tab at the top of the page. A link to the page is below.

https://dundas-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/about-our-school/enrolment.html

The flyer below contains information regarding our Kindergarten Expo and Orientation sessions. Feel free to share this with friends/neighbours who may have a child starting Kindergarten.

Applications for Extended Leave -Travel during a school term (reminder from previous newsletter)

Families are encouraged to travel during school holidays. If travel during school term is necessary, discuss this with the school. Family holidays and travel taken during the school term are not considered leave unless it is for specified special circumstances, such as an important life event (wedding or bereavement).

Policy states ‘14.6. Where a principal considers that the travel is appropriate during school term, the principal should issue the parent with an Application for Extended Leave – Travel for completion and inform the parent that if the Application is accepted, the absences will be recorded as “L” – Leave.’

Applications for Extended Leave that do not include justifiable reasons, will not be approved for leave and a certificate of extended leave will not be issued. Following policy, these absences will be recorded as ‘explained but unjustified’.

Below is a link to the Application for Extended Leave form.

https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/policy-library/public/implementation-documents/pd-2005-0259-02-2.pdf

If the travel period exceeds 50 school days, students may be eligible to enrol in distance education.

Kind regards,

Lee Shipley

Principal

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