Five Dock PS Newsletter Term 3, Week 8 2023

Relieving Principal's Report

Welcome to Week 8. It is amazing to think that we are now heading towards the end of Term 3. The term has certainly gone by extremely quickly, with much learning and educational experiences occurring at Five Dock PS. 

This week we celebrated SASS week, where we acknowledged the hard work of our School Administration and Support Staff. This is a week where we acknowledge and give thanks and appreciation to our SASS team who provide integral support to our school on a daily basis. 

Our SASS are there to greet all who enter our school with a welcoming smile and are committed to providing an important service to the school and the community. Our SASS team are a link to our school engaging and working with the community. 

The SASS team work in the school office, classrooms, library and support the maintenance of our school grounds. When our students are unwell, they provide the care and concern students need at this time. They are responsible for supporting the management and practices and processes of the school and manage the school's finances and accounts. They work and support our students with additional needs and assist with the delivery of education on the same basis as their peers. 

We would like to acknowledge the work of the SAS staff and show our appreciation for the enormous work they do to keep our school thriving. We would like to encourage all members of our community to join us in showing this thanks and appreciation for the following SAS staff: 

Carla Fabri - School Administration Manager

Kerry Clarke - School Administration Officer

Deby Raspolich - School Administration Officer

Deb O'Loughlin - School Administration Officer

Marlene Streater - School Administration Officer

Karl Sharp - School Learning Support Officer

Sonia Paci - School Learning Support Officer

Debbie Cheang - School Learning Support Officer

Benjamin Cansdell - School Learning Support Officer

Candice Smith - School Learning Support Officer

Emily Walton - School Learning Support Officer

Emily O'Loughlin - General Assistant

Lelia Choucair - School Learning Support Officer

Michelle Lenn - School Learning Support Officer

Munazza Saeeda - School Learning Support Officer

Remy Phillipps - School Learning Support Officer

Dianne Souma - School Learning Support Officer

Natasha Casmiri - School Learning Support Officer

Luke Casmiri - School Learning Support Officer

Professional Learning 

From 2023 to 2025, teachers have been given release time to focus on curriculum reform to help them effectively implement new syllabuses. Primary school teachers received 5 hours per term in 2023. Each school allocates this time accroding to staffing availability and at Five Dock PS, this has been allocated as one day per term; one will be next week, the other will be provided early in Term 4. Next week, teachers will be provided this day and each stage will be off class one day during the week to focus on implementing the new K-2 syllabus document and engaging with the draft 3-6 syllabus. 

Last week, Mrs Holmes and I attended some profesional learning related to the implementation of effective mathematics teaching. Professor Di Siemon discussed the imortance of multiplicative strategies which encompass a student’s ability to manipulate numbers in multiplicative situations. 

Students need to be able to understand the relationship between division and multiplication and develop the ability to flexibly use these as inverse operations when solving problems.

Professor Di Siemon describes multiplicative thinking as:

• a capacity to work flexibly and efficiently with an extended range of numbers (that is., larger whole numbers, decimals, common fractions, ratio and per cent),
• an ability to recognise and solve a range of problems involving multiplication or division including direct and indirect proportion, and
• the means to communicate this effectively in a variety of ways (for example, words, diagrams, symbolic expressions, and written algorithms).

This professional learning will inform our situational analysis and will be an important consideration for our new Strategic Improvement Plan.

Stage 3 Fun Day 

What a fantastic day Stage 3 students organised last Friday. As a school we raised well over $2000. This is an amazing collective effort on the part of students, who organised all the wonderful activities and stalls, teachers who facilitated this and supported students through the organisation and to parents for their generous donations. An enormous thanks goes to the students, Mr Johnson and Mr Sharp for the enromous effort that went into the day. Thank you to the community for their support of this event. 

Public Speaking Competition

This week we have held our class public speaking competitions in preparation for the school competition which will be held next Wednesday 13 September in the school hall. If your child is in the final, you will be invited to attend on this day. Congratulations to all of the students who have progressed to the finals. Public speaking is a skill many adults find challenging and so to see students comfortable and courageous enough to speak to a large group of people is wonderful. Wishing all of the following students the very best of luck. No matter the result, they should all be extremely proud of their efforts to get get this far. 

School Infrastructure

During the school holidays and over the coming weeks, the school will have some school infrastructure upgrades take place. The roof in Block A and B will be replaced, so consequently there will be some scaffolding around the school over the next two months. The estimated completion date is 17 November. The upstairs in Block A will also be renovated through painting, which began today with Mrs Alessi's and Ms Burgess's rooms. These upgrades will enable the school to have a face-lift of sorts and contribute to its improved aesthetics. 

Dogs in the school grounds

A reminder that we are not permitted to have dogs on the school grounds, so we would appreciate it if you do need to bring dogs when picking up your child, you wait for them outside the school grounds. We appreciate your cooperation with this. 

Kindergarten School Readiness Talk 

Next Thursday evening from 6-7pm, we will be holding a school readiness talk in the school hall. This talk is designed for parents to gain an understanding of how you know if your child is ready for school and to support you if you are unsure about whether to send you child to school in 2024, or wait until 2025. This talk is part of our transition and enrolment process and we encourage as many parents to attend as possible. Please join us and you will have the opportunity to ask questions that you may have about enrolling your child. 

If you have any neighbours with young children about to start, please let them know that we are taking new enrolments now. 

Enrolments 2024

We are now taking enrolments for Kindergarten in 2024. If you intend to enrol your child at Five Dock PS next year, please complete an enrolment form. It is extremely valuable for us to know how many students we are expecting as it impacts on our numbers, how many staff we are allocated and classes we are able to form.The number of classes we form largely depends on our numbers for Kindergarten, so knowing how many students we will have supports us with our planning for 2024. Over the next two weeks, we will be asking for parenst to indicate to the school if they plan on leaving the school in 2024, as this too will support our planning. 

Have a wonderful fortnight!

Suzi Chosid

Relieving Principal

RUOK? Day

R U OK? Day 2023 is Thursday 14 September and is a national day of action when we remind Australians that every day is the day to  ask, ‘are you OK?’ and start a meaningful conversation whenever they spot the signs that someone they care about might be struggling with life.

On Thursday 14 September the P&C's OOSH wil be holding a fundraiser for RUOK? day. Wear yellow and bring a gold coin donation on this day, along with other events. There will also be a hot dog lunch available on the day. Please see details below about how to order. 

We hope as many students as possible support this day. 

P&C News

The next P&C meeting is a little different. The P&C would like you all to join them online. They have arranged for a guest presenter, psychologist, Maria Ruberto who will present an interactive session on "Raising Resilient Kids". 

Please see details attached to this message. 

When: Wednesday 13 September

Where: Online (Please note that this session is not being recorded) 

Cost: Free for families and carers of FDPS kids

If you would like to attend, please email: fdpspandc@gmail.com and the online link for the event will be sent to you over the weekend. 

Don't miss the wonderful opportunity to hear from an expert and gain practical tools to help you build resilient kids. 

Father's Day Stall

Last Thursday our P&C held a very successful Father's Day stall. Thank you to the many parents who volunteered on this day and to all who contributed via purchasing a gift. The P&C raised well over $1000, which is fantastic. 

Merit Award Winners

In the Classroom

Preschool

• Drumming still continues to be a big interest for our Amaroo Group
• We changed our climbing area and renewed enthusiasm for gross motor activities
• Buruwang Group are loving their weekly Gymnastics lessons
• Great cooperative learning in the sand pit.

Stage 2

An Eggcellent Day
On Thursday last week, it was an exciting day as students from Stage 2 and the Support Unit joined forces for the eagerly anticipated Egg Drop challenge. At the start of the term, students were presented with an intriguing challenge - to design and build an egg drop contraption that could withstand the powerful forces of impact. They delved into research, analysing various egg drop designs and materials, and collaboratively crafted criteria for what would constitute a successful egg drop contraption.
The culmination of their hard work and creativity took place on our Egg Drop Launch Day, which turned out to be a resounding success. With careful planning and innovation, the majority of the eggs remained unharmed during our experiments. It was a day filled with scientific exploration, teamwork, and the thrill of discovery, reminding us all that learning can be an egg-citing adventure!

Fluency Sprint:
Class Birrung is currently immersed in an intensive learning sprint. Students have teamed up in pairs, diligently working to enhance their fluency skills. Through collaborative activities, peer feedback and reflection, they are racing towards fluency mastery, creating a vibrant and dynamic learning environment in the classroom.

Preschool

Support Unit

Early Stage 1

Stage 1

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Stage 2

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Stage 3

Library News

The Five Dock PS library is fast becoming the place to be. After the excitement of Book Week and another successful Book Fair, Stage 3 students have been presenting their speeches on Famous First Nation’s Peoples during library lessons. We also had a special virtual live Zoom session with author Matt Cosgrove reading his stories “Macca the Alpaca” and “Macca the Backpacker” to Stage 1 students before leading them in a directed drawing of Macca. Wednesday the 30th of August was “International Whale Shark Day”, and the students of Stage 2 Birrung were treated to an impressive and spontaneous presentation about these majestic creatures by Sam Ombico from 1/ 2 Murawung . Sam put together a short speech about whale sharks and had us captivated as he shared his knowledge about them.

The library is now open every day during the 2nd half of lunch and all students are welcome to come in to play quiet games and puzzles, build Lego and to create artistic masterpieces.

William Mullins in Stage 3 is the mastermind behind Wednesday’s Art Club, which is proving extremely popular with students from all stages. I am hoping to get Chess Club up and running again in the coming weeks.

Book Week Competition Winners

Congratulations to the following students who each won a $10 book voucher to spend on a book of their choice from the Scholastic Book Club after entering the Library Book Week competitions.

K-2 Competition “Guess How Many Frogs in the Jar”

Winners - Hudson Hong (Badu) Sophie Shankland (Buru) Khalea Russo (Buru)

Years 3-6 Competition – Who Am I? Book Characters

Winners - Zara Pham, Naomi Wright, Nina Stajcic (all from Warin)

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Congratulations once again to everyone who took part in and completed the challenge this year. The 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge is now closed, officially ending on Friday, August 18th. 140 students signed up for it this year, and 104 students completed it!

The Kindergarten to Year 2 students that took part had to read 30 books each and Years 3 to 6 needed to read 20 books each.

There were 2,760 BOOKS READ between them!

What an incredible effort! The following students have finished in recent weeks.

Kindergarten – Henry Preatoni, Alfie Binns

Year 1 – Sienna Deacon, Julian Seabrook, Jed Lye,

Year 2 – Aahil Chakore, Perry Milner, Grace Wu, Zoe Fung, Olivia Yan, Toby Paton, Kristy Cheung

Year 3 – Wyclef Fotofili, Blake Munro, Zoe Munro, Marcus Seabrook, Salome Barsoum,

Year 4 – Leo Collinge, Georgina Hilton, Yasmeen Maqboul, Charlotte Kemlo

Year 5 – Sophia Deacon, William Hewston, Lily Waters

Year 6- Abbey Hilton, Sienna Knoblauch, Zara Kurtz- Marshall, Nina Stajcic, Brax Gair, Luca Goti, Oscar Uematsu, Violet Tamsett, Naomi Wright, Anita Gray-Brito, Liam Paton, Lilla Fischer

These names have been added to the Premier’s Reading Challenge “Wall of Fame “in the library and a Merit Certificate was also presented to them during Library lessons.

All 104 students who have completed the challenge will also receive a formal Certificate from the Premier of NSW’s office later this year.

Overdue Books and General Book Care

Thank you to all the families who have assisted their children in finding and returning overdue books to the library. The recent response has been particularly pleasing with many misplaced books finding their way back to the library.

Unfortunately, I have had books returned to the library in the last couple of weeks wet and mouldy. These books now need to be disposed of. There has been some discussion with the students about book care, looking after school property and the importance of bringing a library bag to school each week. I am encouraging the students to put their books back into their library bag once they have finished reading them at home and to have a special place to keep library books at home, so that they are easily accessed and returned to school on time.

Robyn Christopoulos

Teacher Librarian

Library

Stage 2's Eggsellent Egg Drop

Sydney FC Schools Cup

This day consisted of small-sided games being held throughout the day, with everyone having the opportunity to participate in at least 3 games. There was also a fan-zone where players could interact with other participants when they weren't playing a match.

Thank you to Ms Alessi for organising this wonderful opportunity for our students. 

Sydney FC Schools Cup

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