Dear JPS Families, 

It has been wonderful to see so many of our students representing our school with pride across a range of opportunities and events this week!

Earlier this week, Mrs Behl-Shanks and I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of students to Sydney to attend the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Check out some great photos and Mrs Behl-Shanks' recount of the day below.

Our boys’ touch football team also competed at Minnamurra Public School this week, demonstrating excellent sportsmanship, teamwork and determination throughout the day. We are very proud of the way they represented our school both on and off the field. Thanks to Mrs Lando for organising and accompanying the team. 

Congratulations also to our debating team, who competed against Oak Flats Public School and came away with a win. Their topic was “That all homework and assignments should be group work,” and our team presented some very strong arguments for the negative. Well done to Zahli, Cate, Elsie and Kiara on their preparation, confidence and teamwork.

Next week is also shaping up to be another exciting and busy week at school. Our Stage 1 students will be performing in multiple Dance Festival performances in Wollongong. We know how much hard work has gone into preparing for these performances and we cannot wait to see our students dazzle on the big stage. Many staff members will also be attending Wednesday’s performance to cheer them on. Chookas to all of our dancers!

On Monday, we will be holding Crazy Hair and Sock Day and are looking forward to seeing the creative styles our students (and staff) come up with. Apologies for adding an extra step to the morning routine, parents! For those who are time-poor or would just like a little more colour, we will be spraying hair for $2 from 8.30am. 

Wednesday is National Simultaneous Storytime, where all students will enjoy listening to this year’s featured story, Luna Roo. Our Year 6 students will also walk to the preschool to share the story with preschool students and help with some activities afterwards. Opportunities like this are always a wonderful way for our older students to demonstrate leadership and connection with our wider community.

Next week also marks National Reconciliation Week, an important time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to reflect on how we can continue to build respectful relationships within our communities. As part of this, our Aboriginal students will participate in Kiama Council’s Sorry Day Commemoration event, and our school leaders and years 3-6 Aboriginal students will attend the Lake Illawarra Flag Walk. These events provide meaningful opportunities for students to honour and acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures and histories, and we are proud to have our students representing our school at these important community events.

Thursday will also see students involved in rehearsals for this year’s Music Night. We are incredibly fortunate to have so many talented and enthusiastic students at our school and are looking forward to another fantastic showcase of student performance.

Kind Regards, 

Bec Gavin

Principal

Mrs Gavin and I had the pleasure of accompanying 20 enthusiastic and impeccably behaved students to Sydney Town Hall for the Sydney Writers’ Festival on Wednesday.  A surprise highlight of the day proved to be visiting the Queen Victoria Building toilets, with much animated discussion surrounding the automated flushes, sensor taps, soap dispensers and hand dryers.

We thought our students were excited on the journey in, until we arrived and experienced the buzz and swell of adrenaline from the packed festival crowd! We were treated to presentations from five outstanding speakers who are right at the top of the children’s literature game.

The day started strongly with an energetic Mick Elliot who rallied the crowd (not that it was entirely necessary) and had us all dancing the 'soccer goal boogie' to break a world record. He was followed by rock star author Dav Pilkey, who had the audience completely captivated with tales and drawings of his popular Captain Underpants and Dog Man characters. Kate Foster entertained with her '3 lies and a truth' tales based on Australian animals and shared her big brother's unintentional contribution to her success as an author when she was just 4 years of age. Yxavel Magna Dino presented the somewhat terrifying Filipino monsters that were the stimuli for her novels' villains and her characters' superpowers that have been inspired by the insect world. The day was concluded with RA Spratt sharing a dramatic reading from her latest Nanny Piggins' book.

Then it was time for the country kids' to leave the big smoke and commence the trip home. It came in waves, a mix of excitement from such a memorable day, many freshly purchased novels being christened and the toll of the pre-7am train departure kicking in. Despite being weary travellers, the students represented our school beautifully. This finding had scientific backing, with Mrs Gavin's watch 'stress monitor' never rising beyond a 'reaxed state' for the duration of the big day out. Congratulations one and all!

On Wednesday 21st of May, an enthusiastic group of students from Years 3–6 represented Jamberoo Public School in a PSSA Touch Football Knockout game. The team displayed excellent effort, teamwork and sportsmanship throughout the match, working hard for one another from start to finish. The students should be incredibly proud of the way they represented our school during the game.

A special mention goes to our Man of the Match and captain, Ruben S, for his outstanding performance, skill and determination throughout the game. Thank you to our parents and carers for your ongoing support and for allowing the students to participate in such a valuable and enjoyable experience.

Mrs Lando

This week in Wombarra, students have been busy learning across many areas of the curriculum.

In mathematics, we have been learning about teen numbers and practising building these numbers using MAB blocks to help us understand tens and ones. We have also been exploring measurement by weighing different classroom items and discussing which objects are heavy and light.

In health, students explored their personal strengths and discussed how these strengths help make each person unique. Students identified strengths they are proud of, such as being kind, helpful, creative, brave, or a good friend. They practised describing their strengths and shared examples of how these qualities help them at school and at home. Through class discussions and activities, students learnt that everyone has different strengths and that these strengths help shape who we are.

In English, we have been learning how to write simple sentences using a subject, verb, and noun. For example, “Spiders spin webs.” Students were also introduced to adjectives and practised using descriptive words in their writing. To support this learning, students built spiders using playdough and then wrote creative sentences describing their spiders using adjectives.

It has been a wonderful week of hands-on learning and creativity in Kindergarten!

Walabi students are in the learning groove at the moment!  I keep telling them they are on fire! In English we have been enjoying that adapted legend of Nian the Chinese New Year Dragon and students are just starting to work on their own puppet play version of the narrative.

In mathematics, we have been focusing on the concept of equality. We tend to think of the equals sign as simply a sign for 'the answer is' when in reality it means both sides of the equals sign are equivalent. We've also worked on the split strategy for addition and subtraction.

16 Walabi students are also involved in Dance Festival next week and we wish them all the best in their performances! Eat healthy food and get lots of sleep so you can stay well for this big week, everyone!

Mrs McCormack