Drummoyne Public School

Thank you

Thank you to Dianne Colb for acting as relieving Principal for me in recent weeks to support my extended break getting the school off to an excellent start for Term 2.  Thank you also to Leigh Russ (relieving Deputy Principal) and Kathy Xenos (relieving Assistant Principal stage 2) for taking on additional executive roles during this time.

Reading Workshop

Thank you to every parent that attended our Thursday workshop on teaching your children to read with around 60 parents attending (see photo). In addition to the handouts on practical things parents can do, the slides from the presentation will be included in the newsletter. I would like to sincerely thank our speakers Beck Cantlay (Assistant Principal Curriculum & Instruction) and Gaby Walsh (Assistant Principal – Kindergarten) for their commitment to literacy in the early years.

Mother’s Day

We would like to wish all of our Mums, ‘Grand-mums’ and ‘Mums to Be’ a very special Mother’s Day on Sunday and thank all of our ladies for their faithful support of our children and the school throughout the year. We hope it is lovely time for all of our Drummoyne families.

Annual Report

Each year the Department of Education asks all schools to prepare an annual report on school progress and achievements.  The 2022 Annual Report is now available on the school’s website found at: https://drummoyne-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/about-our-school/school-planning-and-reporting.html

At the P&C meeting on Tuesday night, I will provide a short presentation on the report and answer any questions parents may have.

New Curriculum Planning Days

This term teachers will again be released from class teaching for a day (primary teachers) or two days (infant’s teachers) to participate in training related to the new curriculum.  In addition, our staff will soon have the opportunity to engage with Mathematics consultant Anita Chin through demonstration lessons and stage workshops. This professional learning follows the 3.30pm – 5.30pm staff meeting with Anita last week and is central to our target on improving numeracy for all students across the school.

Winter Uniform

Thank you to every family that support our children to be in full school uniform every school day. While for the colder mornings children need to rug up, please ensure that school uniform is being worn.

Learning & Enrichment Support Team

Each week our teaching and specialist staff meet to discuss strategies and plan support to meet the needs of many students across the school. This support focuses on students who are experiencing difficulties but also on students who are progressing well and maybe exceeding curriculum expectations to ensure their continued progress through enrichment strategies. If the Learning Enrichment & Support Team is concerned about a student, then contact will be made with a family.

P&C Meeting

The May P&C meeting will be held this Tuesday 16 May from 7.30pm in the library and all parents/carers are invited to join us.

Community Users @ DPS

The Department of Education’s policy is that schools are encouraged to make their facilities available for use by the community. Even so, this must be for appropriate purposes, must not interfere with the school’s provision of learning programs and be of mutual benefit to the school and the community. DPS accommodates our community groups, where possible, and this year has entered into Community User agreements with nine groups, including GOWRIE NSW, giving students access to music, languages, mindfulness and chess classes as well as community access to Tai Chi and Karate classes. The school has carefully scheduled these classes, in and around school programs. While we have already provided as many spaces as we have available for this year, we look forward to continued support of community programs in the future.

School Crossings 

For your child’s safety, it’s very important to ensure they use the school crossing. At all crossings you must wait on the footpath, at least one step back from the edge of the road. Please wait until the school crossing supervisor has stopped the traffic and called you to cross.  

If you are driving, you must not proceed until the school crossing supervisor’s hand-held sign is no longer displayed, or until the crossing supervisor indicates that you may proceed through the crossing. 

Scooters and Bikes  

Students who ride their bikes or scooters to school are reminded about our expectations:  

• Once at the school gate, students are to walk their bikes or scooters to the bike racks in the South playground.  

• Stand bikes where possible and neatly store scooters. 
• Students riding bikes and scooters must wear a helmet.

On occasion, students may decide to bring items to school that hold significant monetary or sentimental value. In keeping with legal advice from the Department of Education, the school cannot accept liability for personal belongings, valuables and other student owned property if these items become lost, stolen or broken.

As a result, we discourage students from bringing valuables to school including mobile telephones, Smart watches, digital devices, cameras, ‘swap’ cards and the like to school.

Dianne Colb

Deputy Principal

With flu cases on the rise, we would like to remind you that simple hygiene such as regularly washing hands will help stop the spread of the potentially deadly virus.

Students are asked to stay home when sick. They should only attend school when they are symptom free. 

Parents and carers who have children with persistent or ongoing symptoms of flu or COVID 19 are encouraged to have these assessed by their local health care professional. These symptoms may be related to other illnesses (e.g. allergies or hay fever) that require treatment and management by a doctor. 

Dr Vicky Sheppeard, NSW Health Director of Communicable Diseases, said while the flu vaccine is still the best protection, simple hand hygiene is also important.

“Basic hygiene can help prevent flu and other infections spreading in the community, so it’s really important to cover your coughs and sneezes, and wash your hands regularly,” Dr Sheppeard said.

We had a wonderful turn out at our first DPS parent workshop for 2023! Thank you to those parents who were able to make it. Gaby Walsh and I appreciated your enthusiasm, questions throughout the session and feedback for how we might be able to support our parent community with future workshops.

For those who weren’t able to make it, please see the attached document below with the slide deck created for the workshop to support you and your child as they read at home.

One of the wonderful parents at our school, Susan Tran, will be hosting a 'Biggest Morning Tea' to raise money and aid awareness for the Cancer Council. She has been inspired to undertake this fundraising journey due to her own family experience with cancer and would like to help others impacted by this terrible disease.

She has pledged to raise $10,000 for the Cancer Council and is hoping, with the generosity of our community, and a raffle with some excellent prizes, we can help to find a cure with the money raised.

Below are the details of how to register to attend the morning tea and donate if you are able to. Susan looks forward to welcoming you into her home for joyful and uplifting sharing of stories.

Date: Saturday 27th May 2023

Time: Anytime from 10am till the last person doesn't want to talk anymore 

Venue:  Please contact me directly via email (listed below) for further details and to access FAQs

Food: there will be lots

Drinks: also lots

Space: limited so hurry and RSVP before I put you on a waitlist 

RSVP: susantran80@gmail.com or accept via FB event https://fb.me/e/TcOlfiUJ

Donations: welcomed via https://www.biggestmorningtea.com.au/fundraisers/Susan

Respect awards - Rawson says congratulations to: 

• Harrison Hong - 1P

Responsibility awards - Monty says congratulations to:

• Russell Bockos - 2M
• Harvey Estrella - 2M
• Christopher Oparcik - 2M

• Ari Suharli - 1P
• Luis Orgad - 2M
• Ari Sagaram - 2O

Mr Dill says congratulations to:

• Luis Orgad - 2M - Resilience Badge

This week DPS had their first debate against Orange Grove Public School. The topic was ‘that student leaders should be picked at random, rather than being elected’.

The Bartons were the away team. As the affirmative, they clearly and confidently argued that random selection would result in a more diverse student leadership group and prevent a ‘popularity contest’, also ensuring students are not  influenced by others on who to vote for or bribed with fake promises. 

Their compelling teamline was ‘No campaigning, no speeches, no ballots, no popularity contests!’ Congratulations to 1st speaker Aydin Dizdar, 2nd speaker Amber Worden, 3rd speaker Gabrielle Buckman and team advisor Theo Kav who won their debate. Well done, Aydin who was chosen as debater of the day, for his diabolical manner. A very big thankyou to Gabrielle's dad, Jon, for providing transport. 

The negative team, the Scomos, comprising Hugo Hackett as 1st speaker, 2nd speaker  Arun Bains, 3rd speaker Sienna Zheng and Irelen McCleave as team advisor, argued  the importance of the democratic process and freedom of choice, also saying that not everyone has the necessary leadership qualities nor the desire to lead.

Their excellent team line was ‘Democracy rules!’ The Scomos also won their debate. Congratulations to Sienna, who was chosen as the debater of the week for her clear voice projection. 

Also, thank you to our chairperson Lucy Fernley, timekeeper Amelia Baggett-Grenfell and meeter and greeters Aria Shipp and Sophie Hill.

Book Club

Issue 3 of Book Club is now live. Orders need to be placed online by Friday 12th May.

Please place all orders through: scholastic.com.au/LOOP - We no longer accept cash payments for Book Club orders.

Joseph Neufeld

Teacher Librarian

On Friday 5th May sudents in Year 3-6 headed down to Brett Park for our annual Cross Country carnival. The students arrived enthusiastic and ready for a great day of long distance running!

The juniors (8/9yr old’s) & 10yr old’s ran 2km and our 11yr old’s & 12/13yr old’s ran 3km. Every student who participated gave their best effort and ran with great sportsmanship and courage. Congratulations to everyone who finished the race!

Please see the attached document with the list of students who finished top 6 in their age group and will receive a ribbon at the primary assembly on Tuesday.

The top 4 students of each age group will be representing Drummoyne PS at the Zone PSSA carnival on the 24th May at Campbell Park, Chiswick. We wish you the best of luck!

Lastly, congratulations to Macarthur/yellow house who won the carnival with a total of 217 points! Closely followed by Cook/blue house with 203, Farrer/green house with 186 and Phillip/red with 82.  

Stage 3 students who have applied to be in the PSSA Netball Gala day team will continue training on Friday mornings at 8.50am.

Please meet Ms Davis at the blue court outside the library.

Sam Davis

Netball Co-ordinator

Our school is partnering with the local school bus operator, Busways, to support a new Tap On and Tap Off education campaign encouraging students who travel by bus to correctly use their school Opal cards. Busways is implementing this campaign throughout Term 3, 2023. This campaign will focus on a simple message – tap on and tap off every time you travel by bus.

Why is tapping on and off on the bus important?

The use of Opal cards is the primary way bus operators and Transport for NSW analyse demand for bus services. When students don’t use their Opal cards, their trip is not recorded. Therefore, buses may appear underutilised. Tapping on and off provides better data to plan better bus services. How can you help? If your child travels to school by bus, please ensure your child has a valid Opal card (either a School or Child/Youth Opal card).

Visit Transport for NSW website to apply for a school Opal card. Students may see onboard bus posters and Busways Community Relation Officers at afternoon loadings. Together let’s get students into good habits of tapping on and tapping off with their Opal card.

Thank you for your support with this campaign.

The permission notes listed below have been sent home recently and should be completed and signed by parents as soon as possible.

• School Contributions  for all students - $120  - overdue
• Zing Activ Term 2 Athletics program for all students - child 1 $45, child 2 $30
• Year 5 Overnight excursion to Bathurst - $200 final payment
• Year 6 Overnight excursion to Canberra - $200 deposit overdue

Unfortunately it has not been practical for the P&C to register to redeem the Service NSW vouchers for uniform sales.

Even so, if you have outstanding fees due for Zing Activ, the Year 5 Bathurst excursion, the Year 6 Canberra excursion or the school contributions please email a photo of your voucher or come to the office and we can redeem them for you and credit your account towards these payments. Service NSW vouchers expire on 30 June.

Our school communication platform, Skoolbag, has upgraded, and will now be known as Audiri.

To upgrade to Audiri, all you need to do is go to the App or Play Store and update your Skoolbag app.  The new Audiri app will replace Skoolbag as the primary communication platform for Drummoyne Public School. 

Your username and password will stay the same.

Please see the below flyer with FAQs about Audiri.

Please ensure your child’s name is permanently and clearly labelled on belongings such as school hats, jackets, lunch boxes, drink bottles and school bags.

Please use a permanent laundry marker to label clothes, hats and shoes, or sew or iron on personalised labels, go through your child’s bag with them regularly and check that labels haven’t faded with washing.

As winter sets in, it is time to start planning for our Spring Carnival (school fete) and we need your help! At this stage what we really need is people who can give a bit more time to help us coordinate some of our key stalls.

There are several different roles on offer and if you want to share a role with a buddy, that can work really well too. If you have any interest at all, please get in touch and we can talk about what you feel you can manage.

Please contact Emma on 0417 464 517 or emauzins@gmail.com.

Please join us for the May P&C meeting on Tuesday 16 May from 7.30pm in the school library.

The Mother's Day stall was a huge success and the children had a wonderful time choosing a lovely present with their vouchers this morning.

If anyone missed out there are spare gifts that can be purchased from the school office.

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers who helped at the stall, namely: Belle, Tania, Ange, Amanda, Michelle, Jenn, Yasmin, Susan, Emilie, Peter, Sahar, Ali and Elena.

Also a big shout out to the school office team, teachers and the grounds team, Phil & Param for all their help.

P&C Committee

The uniform shop will be open during term 2 for face to face sales on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm - 3.30pm.

Please remind students to be responsible for their belongings and return their hats, lunchboxes and jumpers to their bags after the lunch and recess breaks.

Our new hybrid unisex school hats are back in stock!

We are phasing out both the old style round girls hat as well as the Legionnaire hat and once stock has been exhausted only the Hybrid Unisex hat will be available.

Please order school uniforms online. The P&C will process orders and the school office staff will distribute them.

 Please use our school Registration ID: 2572963 to create an account if you don’t already have one for canteen orders.

Thank you all our wonderful parent volunteers this week namely: Gabi, Annika, Ollie, Sarah, and Jo-Anne.

Volunteers needed!!  

Any help would be most appreciated.

When volunteering on these days, your child will receive a free lunch. This does not include extras eg. drink, quelch stick etc.

To volunteer, please log in to your school24 account. Click onto 'Volunteer' and follow the prompts.

Your help is most appreciated!

Canteen, P&C Committee

To book Gowrie NSW - enrolment forms can be found on the Gowrie website:

https://www.gowriensw.com.au/out-of-hours-care/drummoyne-and-stmarks

Contact Rekkha for more information on 0436 616 744.

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