Term 3 Newsletter - 8 August 2022

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Term 3 Week 4 - Monday 8th August

Dear Parents and Carers 

I was privileged to visit every classroom last week and see how excited students were, to have special guests in rooms. Fortunately, lots of parents and grandparents were able to seize the opportunity to visit the school, and the pre-arranged appointment scheduling system appeared to work well. The parents I met enroute around the school were very patient, waiting outside rooms, for their time to visit inside. Thank you!

The library too, was abuzz with many parents and students visiting the Book Fair during the week and lots of these visitors, taking the opportunity to make a purchase. Thank you for supporting this event, as a percentage of sales will be returned to our library to buy resources.

I know the choral and dance troupe performers were also so excited to be finally able to present items to parents. The inclement weather predicted, held off, as we enjoyed the items of students, supported by their teachers, outside, under the COLA.

With new conductors secured for the JPPS School Band, and rehearsals recommencing early this morning, we hope it won't be too long before our band can be added to performance programs, once more. When I popped in this morning, the students were practising 'In The Hall Of The Mountain King' from the Peer Gynt suite. What an invigorating start to the day!

Talented performers also featured in the hall last week, as the Stage 2 and Stage 3 Spelling Bees concluded. Congratulations, Aiden P (Stage 3) and Adam L (Stage 2), who will now advance to the regional competition of the NSW Premier's Spelling Bee, in coming weeks.

John Purchase PS is proud to be part of the Connect Collaborate Grow Community of Schools, in north western Sydney. Teachers and leaders from each of the schools in our network, passionately believe that by engaging in professional dialogue about our practices, the benefits to student learning remain front and centre of our core business. This Wednesday and Thursday, we will be welcoming teaching teams from four Sydney schools, as well as four visiting staff from schools across NSW, to share in our instructional rounds. The educators will be observing mathematics teaching and learning in sixteen classrooms.

This Friday, 12th August, the executive team invites all parents to a masterclass, via Zoom, where the focus will be on students' reading comprehension. I do hope you can join us in this virtual event! RSVP and login details appear in my flyer below.

Have a great week!

Regards

Mrs Adela King
Relieving Principal 

Band Rehearsals Resume

Our P & C has appointed Teaching Services Australia to operate the school band program until the end of 2023. New JPPS band conductor, Ben Miesch, pictured with students rehearsing this morning, is pictured below. At this stage, Ben will be conducting the Monday morning rehearsal and Steve Lavis will be conducting the Wednesday morning rehearsal.

Premier's S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g Bee

Last week, students in Stage 2 and Stage 3 put their spelling skills to the test, challenging their knowledge against class peers, before advancing to the stage rounds, held in the hall. Congratulations to Stage 2's winner, Adam L and Stage 3's winner, Aiden P, who now both advance to the regional competition. Thank you, Miss Brennan, who coordinated the events and adjudicated all those challenging words.

COVID-SMART MEASURES FOR TERM 3

Many of our existing COVID-smart measures continue into Term 3, including:

• staying home if unwell, even if you have a negative RAT, until you are free of symptoms

• rapid antigen testing for symptomatic students and close contacts able to return to school

• strongly encouraging mask wearing, particularly for the first 4 weeks of term

• strongly encouraging all eligible students and their families to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and the flu

• maximising natural ventilation

• good hygiene practices

• strict requirements for close contacts attending school

• responding to local COVID-19 conditions

Some things are changing this term:

COVID-19 vaccination policy update – the mandate requiring COVID-19 vaccination will be lifted for staff in most school settings from 1 August 2022. We will continue to encourage all staff, students and our school community to keep up to date with their vaccinations, including getting a booster shot when eligible.

Boosted day cleaning – our cleaning model has shifted slightly and will now be more concentrated during school hours.

Thank you again for your ongoing support.

Please find The NSW Government Term 3 COVID-smart Settings in Schools Fact Sheets for Parents and Carers below.

Do you know someone who could fill this position?SCHOOL CROSSING SUPERVISOR - REPEATED 

Unfortunately we are still without a School Crossing Supervisor (SCS)  at the crossing on Purchase Road before and after school. 

Our school may have a staff member at the crossing on most days to promote safety from approximately 8:40am to 8:55am and from approximately 2:50pm to 3pm.

We therefore ask parents to consider the children's safety and to remind children of the following:

• Cross the road at the designated pedestrian crossing facility
• Stop! Look! Listen! Think! when crossing the road
• Take care whenever you cross
• Don’t run across the road

Monday 8th August 2022 

Dear Parents and Carers

Yes, I am the teacher with the green pool noodle! I am a member of the staff team who are working together with the Hornsby Shire Council rangers and the police to ensure the safety of everyone out the front of the school before and after school. Thank you to all the parents, who are following the road rules and our Kiss and Drop expectations. If we all do the right thing, the traffic moves, the students and the parents get to school and work on time and everyone remains safe. Please note and follow the expectations below, in relation to Kiss and Drop and ‘NO PARKING’ zone rules.
• Students being picked up along Purchase Rd, must walk directly to the Kiss and Drop area and remain seated until picked up within the designated seating area. A teacher is rostered on duty at Kiss and Drop at 2:50pm, to supervise students waiting in the zone.
• The purpose of the Kiss and Drop Zone is to foster student safety and parent/driver
convenience, and to minimise congestion. However, the zone requires cooperation from all drivers to be most effective.
• To assist with traffic flow, drivers should remain in the car whilst children get in and out. Drivers must remain within the car or within 3 metres of the car.
• Be timely - If your child does not get in or out of the vehicle within 2 minutes, you must leave the zone so other parents/drivers can collect their children, drive around the block and re-enter the No Parking zone.
• Stay in sequence - Don’t cut in the queue. Drop off or pick up your child close to the front of the zone, allowing vehicles following you to enter the zone in an orderly manner.
• Child safety - Please ensure children get in or out of the vehicle on the kerb side. The back seat is the safest seat for children to travel in, regardless of the make of vehicle. Ensure children have their restraints securely fastened before driving off.
• If there are no available spaces in the Kiss and Drop zone, parents continue driving around the block until there is an available space. Queuing behind the zone holds up traffic along Purchase Rd and blocks vision onto the pedestrian crossing. It therefore jeopardises the safety of our children and community, and inconveniences others.

Please note below that the focus of our school expectations this week is KISS AND DROP. We ask that all members of our school community uphold all our expectations when visiting our school. Thank you in advance.

Stay safe!

Kind regards
Mrs Leonie Cole
Relieving Deputy Principal 

Our School Expectations

Parents please help us to reinforce these expectations, about the Kiss and Drop Zone on Purchase Road, to our students.

Purchase Pride Badges

Purchase Prides recognise positive student behaviour on the playground and in the classroom. When students receive ten Purchase Pride award cards, these should be left in Mrs King’s ‘award shelf’ in the school administration corridor. The ten awards need to be bundled together and clearly labelled with the student’s name and current class.

Award recipients will be presented with a coloured Purchase Pride Badge, the week after their name is published in this newsletter.

Purchase Pride cards also have a 'tear-off' strip. This strip may be removed by the recipient and placed in the appropriate stage box outside Mrs King’s office, to go in the lucky dip draw for a canteen voucher. 

The Purchase Pride Badges recorded below, will be presented next Monday morning.

Congratulations to:

Filipe (KH), Victoria X (1M), Kristy M (1P), Olivia Z (1B), Kyler (1B), Claire (1B), Lucas (2Y), Jackson R (2E), Rafael (1M), Isobel (3P), Bhavya (3P), Bryan (3/4B), Angela (3/4B), Jackson(4G), Yohan (4S), David (4S), Taeyoon (4S), Aaron (4S), Aarush (6DW), Hayley W (6H), Jesse (5F) x2, Pravir (5F)

Class Awards System

JPPS has an incremental class awards system. When a student has received ten class awards, these should be left on Mrs King’s ‘award shelf’ in the school administration corridor. The ten class awards need to be bundled together and clearly labelled with the student’s name, current class and award level reached. A clear, snap lock bag is ideal for this purpose! Students need to be responsible for their own awards, as replacements are not issued.

10 Class Awards = Bronze   20 = Silver   30 = Gold   40 = Bronze Medallion  
50 = Silver Medallion   60 = Gold Medallion  75 = Platinum Medallion and Principal for the Day!

This year, all awards (including Bronze) received by 3pm on Thursday afternoons, are ‘stamped’ and published in the next school newsletter, which is usually on the following Monday. At this time, I indicate when these awards will be presented. Depending on Covid guidelines, Silver Awards, Gold Awards and all Medallions, are presented at whole school assemblies. Please note that Bronze Awards are only presented at the end of each term, at the Principal's Morning Tea.

Bronze Award

These awards will be presented to recipients at the Principal's Morning Tea at the end of Term 2. This event is planned to be held at 10:30am on Tuesday, 20th September. The morning tea will be held in the hall and parents of recipients, will be invited to attend. 

Congratulations to:

Hayley W (6H) 

Silver Award

These awards will be presented at the next assembly. This assembly is planned to occur at 1:35pm on Thursday 25th August (Week 6), under the COLA. All parents are cordially invited to attend.

Congratulations to:

Angela L (3/4B), Austin L (3/4B), Nethula P (3/4B), Archer L (3/4B)

Gold Award

These awards will be presented at the next assembly. This assembly is planned to occur at 1:35pm on Thursday 25th August (Week 6), under the COLA. All parents are cordially invited to attend.

Congratulations to:

Sophie L (5/6M), Sebastian D (5/6B)

Bronze Medallion

These awards will be presented at the next assembly. This assembly is planned to occur at 1:35pm on Thursday 25th August (Week 6), under the COLA. All parents are cordially invited to attend.

The Bronze Medallion morning tea for recipients and Mrs Black and Mrs King, will be held at recess on Wednesday, 21st September.

Congratulations to:

Sithumi M 5/6B

Special Guest in 4S

Last Thursday, the students in 4S were fortunate to hear a presentation by Mr Evans; Bella's grandfather. The students were fascinated to learn about Mr Evans' Aboriginal heritage, including his tribal ancestry and language background. 

4S students also learnt how Aboriginal people use the land sustainably. For example: not wasting food resources and caring for the land. It was a very informative presentation and the students all learnt something new. 

We appreciate Mr Evans sharing his story with us. 

Miss Saul and 4S

Gardening Club

We would like to thank Bunnings Dural for visiting our gardening club on Friday. 
Rachael and Brett taught students about the benefits of growing your own vegetables and assisted students to plant their own! 

We appreciate the ongoing support from Bunnings Dural and cannot wait to harvest our vegetables. 

Miss Griggs and Miss Saul
JPPS Gardening Club 

Premier's Reading Challenge

The PRC closing date for student entries is 19th August 2022. Please make sure your books are entered into online reading logs before midnight of that date in order to ensure they qualify for the 2022 Challenge.

Students use the same username and password to access the reading logs that they use to log on to the computers at school. Happy reading!

Miss Brennan
PRC Coordinator

SPORT NEWS

PSSA results 

Stage 2 vs Dural PS

Netball

JPPS Boys 8 won to DPS 1
JPPS Girls 15 won to DPS 3

Soccer 

JPPS Boys 4 won to DPS 2
JPPS Girls 2 drew with DPS 2

Stage 3 vs Normanhurst PS

Netball 

JPPS Boys 4 won to NPS 3  
JPPS Girls 17 won to NPS 1

Soccer

JPPS Boys 0 lost to NPS 05
JPPS Girls 0 lost to NPS 2 

Stage 2 and 3 Winter PSSA draws below

P & C News

P&C Meeting tonight!

We’d like to warmly welcome you to tonight’s P&C Meeting being held in the Annexe. Members of the association have also been emailed details to join via Zoom if they are unable to attend in person (please note this option is only available for members).

Applications close this week!

John Purchase Public School P and C Association is seeking to employ a casual manager for the Uniform Shop working 10-15 hours per week. Do you want to be part of a wonderful and friendly team?  We also have amazing parent volunteers who can assist in the Uniform Shop in keeping the shop well organised and with fulfilling orders. Details about the role, and the opportunity to apply are available online at https://www.seek.com.au/job/57797979. Applications close on Wednesday this week.

Band is back!

Our first Band Rehearsal for this term was this morning – and it was great! A massive thank you to Ben Miesch for taking the band this morning! Training band kicks off on Wednesday morning, and we can’t wait to see all of our Training Band members there!

Please note our school publishes events for the convenience of families but does not endorse any activity, organisation, person or product.