Dear Parents and Carers,

Week 10 – Celebrating Diversity week

I would like to thank Mrs Zalaf for organising our first ‘Celebrating Diversity’ week. It is important to remember that we are all different, but we all belong. The week has been planned in such a way that students will have opportunities to learn about others, show respect and kindness. I am confident that our school community will benefit from the rich, engaging learning experiences as well as have a fun last week of term.

Stationery Donation Drive

The Term 2 Stationery Drive initiative will finish at the end of this term.

I would like to thank everyone who have generously donated new

stationery items already. We will continue to have the collection tub in

the office for the remaining 2 weeks. Donations can be placed in a

collection tub located in the school office.

Celebrating school attendance

The NSW Department of Education have given public schools a target of 95% student attendance rate. This recognises the fact that we all get unwell from time to time, and when this happens, we need to stay home and rest.

Each term for the remainder of the year, we will be focusing on a different area of school attendance.

This term, we are recognising students who have achieved an attendance rate in Term 2 of 95% or higher by awarding a bronze award in week 10. We will wait until the end of week 9 (next week) to finalise our attendance data. Bronze awards will be given to students in week 10 by classroom teachers.

Applications for Extended Leave (Travel during a school term)

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.

Unwell students and staff

Already this term, we have had many students present to the school office feeling unwell. As the weather is starting to cool and we are moving towards cold and flu season, it is very important that we minimise the spread of illness over the coming months. Please keep your children home from school if they are feeling unwell.

It is very clear that COVID is alive and well in our school community. We have ensured classrooms have antibacterial wipes to clean learning surfaces as well as electronic devices.

Attendance matters (from previous newsletter)

We are experiencing high numbers of students arriving late to school. We request that children arrive by 8:50am so that they can be ready to head to class and commence learning when the morning bell rings at 9:00am. Morning sessions are usually literacy sessions where teachers are explicitly teaching sounds, fluency, comprehension, spelling and writing skills.

If your child misses 5 minutes of learning a day, they will miss 3 full days in a year.

If your child regularly misses 30 minutes per day, they will miss a total of 18 days over a year.

If your child regularly misses 1 day a fortnight, they miss 4 weeks in a school year and over 1 whole year of learning over their time at school.

If your child regularly misses 1 day every week, they will miss 8 weeks over a year and 2.5 years of education over their schooling life.

We require students to attend school every day, apart from when they are unwell.

Scooters and bikes (from previous newsletter)

A reminder that children are not permitted to ride bikes and scooters on school grounds. Children are expected to walk their scooter or bike through the school to keep everyone safe.

School Uniform (from previous newsletter)

It can be tempting with the cooler weather, for students to wear any clothing to school. The school works closely with the DPS P&C to ensure that there is a selection of clothing items available for students to wear in warmer and cooler months of the school year. Students must be wearing a hat to play in unshaded play spaces.

On non-sport days, it is expected that students wear their full school summer or winter uniform to school.

On sport days, students can wear DPS sports polo shirts, DPS sports shorts or skorts, and plain black track pants (for cooler weather). Students who have earned Met West sports hoodies can wear these hoodies on sports days as they are not part of DPS school uniform.

Kind regards,

Lee Shipley

Principal

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