Dear JPS Families, 

Welcome to a bumper edition of our school newsletter! Due to some unexpected technical difficulties, we weren't able to publish our Week 6 newsletter, so this edition includes highlights and updates from the past two weeks. There has certainly been plenty happening around the school, and I hope you enjoy reading about the many achievements, events and learning experiences that our students have been involved in.

As we move into winter, the cooler weather has certainly arrived. With winter also comes flu season, and I would like to remind families that the nasal flu vaccine is now available free of charge for children aged 2–17 years through NSW Health. If you are interested, please contact your GP for further information.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending my very first Music Night. I had heard that it was a tradition stretching back a long time (35 years, I've since found out) and it certainly lived up to its reputation. The evening was filled with an incredible variety of performances, including dance, singing, poetry, music, jokes and even puppetry.

What stood out most was not only the remarkable talent of our students, but also the way our school community came together to support and encourage one another. It was wonderful to see students confidently sharing their passions in such a positive and welcoming environment. I am already looking forward to many more Music Nights in the years ahead. A possible staff item also might be on the cards for 2027.

A sincere thank you to all of our performers for the time, effort and courage they put into preparing for the evening. Thank you also to the audience members whose encouragement helped make the night so special, and to the parents and carers who supported students behind the scenes.

Special thanks go to Mr Reed, who made the trip back down the mountain from Bowral to manage the sound and provide some outstanding bass accompaniment for Finn's performance. Most importantly, thank you to Mrs McCormack, whose dedication and hard work ensure that Music Night remains one of the most celebrated and anticipated events on our school calendar. Look out for Music Night photos in the Week 8 Newsletter.

With the long weekend approaching, I hope all families have the opportunity to enjoy some rest, relaxation and quality time with family and friends. I look forward to seeing everyone back refreshed and ready for the weeks ahead.

Kind Regards, 

Bec Gavin

Principal

What an incredible evening at the Dance Festival last night as our Stage 1 students took to the stage for their very first performance and tech rehearsal! From the moment the lights came on, our students absolutely blew us away with their enthusiasm, confidence, and spectacular performance.

The rehearsals were a wonderful opportunity for students to become familiar with the excitement of performing on the big stage, and they handled every moment like true superstars. Mrs Green and Mrs Mahoney were incredibly proud of the way the students represented our school with such courage, teamwork, and joy.

For many of our students, this is a once-in-a-lifetime primary school memory, and it has been so special to watch them shine.

The excitement continues Friday with another huge day ahead! Students will arrive early for a closed performance where they will also have the chance to watch other schools perform, before returning to the stage for the Closing Show on Friday night at 8:00pm.

We cannot wait to see them shine once again! 🌟

What an incredible Dance Festival season we have had!

To celebrate their outstanding achievement, our Dance Festival students enjoyed a special hot chips and lolly party where we watched back a video from one of our shows. Mrs Green and Mrs Mahoney are so proud of every student for their hard work, effort, determination, commitment, and pride throughout the entire experience.

The past two terms have been incredibly busy as students prepared for last week's performances. Their dedication and enthusiasm shone through at every rehearsal and performance, and they should all be extremely proud of what they achieved.

A huge thank you also goes to our wonderful parents and families for your support. From early morning drop-offs to late-night pick-ups, we couldn't have done it without you. Your encouragement and assistance throughout the journey have been greatly appreciated.

We would also like to give a special thank you to Lauren and Juliet for helping at our props working bee. Thanks to your hard work, our stars sparkled brilliantly on stage with just the right amount of glitter! And a big thank you to Catherine for ensure our boys blazers stayed together using her brilliant sewing skills.

While the festival performances may be over, we have one very special performance remaining. Our dancers will perform for their school friends on Wednesday, 10 June at 2:40pm in the school hall. It will be a wonderful opportunity to share their dance one last time before we hang up our dancing shoes and celebrate the end of an unforgettable Dance Festival journey.

Mrs Green and Mr Mahoney

On Monday, Ms Peterson, our four school leaders, Harper and Isabella proudly represented our school at the Shellharbour Reconciliation Walk. It was a wonderful opportunity to come together with local schools and community members to recognise the importance of reconciliation and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

A special moment from the day was when our school captains participated in a flag exchange ceremony, presenting the Torres Strait Islander flag to a local Aboriginal Elder as a symbol of respect, connection and unity.

Throughout the day, students participated in a range of engaging cultural and community activities including boomerang painting, kite making, boomerang throwing, scratch art hands and basketball activities with the Hawks. Students also enjoyed listening to music from the DJ and having a quick play in the park.

It was a fantastic day of learning, reflection and celebration, and our students represented our school with pride.

A big shout-out to our JPS Builder’s Club students who recently took part in the exciting Toolbox Project! Thanks to the Kiama Men’s Shed for expertly organising all the supplies and providing pre-cut timber panels and pilot holes, making it easier for our students to hammer in nails and assemble their very own toolboxes.

The process involved carefully assembling the pieces, pre-placing nails, applying wood glue, and then nailing the sections together. Along the way, there were some valuable learning moments—some students discovered too late that a panel was backwards, preventing the handle from fitting; others rushed ahead and missed perfect alignment, leaving tiny gaps; and a few builders crafted flawless boxes to be proud of!

Soon, the toolboxes will come home for painting and personalising, ready to be filled with whatever the boys choose.

Special thanks go to Mr Kyle for his hands-on assistance, Mrs Demmerel for capturing the fun with photos, and Mrs Galea for stepping in to lend a hand. Great job, builders!

On Tuesday, Harper, Charlotte, Elijah and Isabella went to the Kiama Council Sorry Day event. A lot of students from other local schools were there, including Kiama, Minnamurra, Kiama High School and Gerringong.

When we arrived Aunty Jodi and Aunty Gwenda spoke to us about why we have Sorry Day and the importance of Reconcilliation. After that we went outside to take part in the smoking ceremony. Because it was raining we all had to stand on the verandah.

When the smoking ceremony was finished, we went back inside and took part in lots of activities, like decorating tap sticks, boomerangs and badges. We also had our photos taken at the photo booth.

Our favourite part of the day was learning about aboriginal history and being a part of this important event.

By Harper and Isabella

Year 6 students enjoyed heading back to Preschool for National Simultaneous Storytime. They listened to the story with the Jamberoo Community Preschool students, before helping out with some craft activities... and reliving their preschool days with a little bit of play in the home corner.

A big thank you to Bunnings for kindly donating gardening supplies to our school to support our passion for the garden. We are so grateful for their generosity and support. Thanks to their donation, we now have brand new gloves, tools, and fresh mulch ready to help us get our winter seeds growing.

We were still lucky enough to enjoy some wonderful banana harvests this week. The bananas were shared between Nanga Mai, Cooinda, and Bimbala, and the students thoroughly enjoyed tasting the fresh produce grown in our school garden.

We are looking forward to hopefully returning to the garden again soon for more planting and harvesting opportunities.

Bimbala have had another busy and exciting fortnight in our classroom. In mathematics, we began exploring how we measure different units of time. Students practised using year‑long calendars to find dates and read the day, date, month and year aloud. After this, they began calculating how much time is left until different important life events. We had great fun finding our birthdays and other special occasions on the calendar and counting down the days. We also received a new classroom clock, which has helped us time events and compare lengths of time. Opportunities to tell the time and measure how long our daily activities take have been woven throughout our maths lessons and across the school day. If you need to know the date, ask a Bimbala student!

We also said a special farewell to Daphne as she and her family head on an exciting overseas adventure. Bimbala said ‘see you later’ to Daphne with crazy hair and delicious cupcakes kindly brought in by the Rowe family. We hope Daphne and her family have a wonderful time away, and we cannot wait to hear about their exciting travels when they return. We also enjoyed our final full teaching day with our class favourite, Mr Reed, which added to the many special moments we celebrated this past fortnight.

Mrs Turner

Birrahlee Athletics Training with Mr Hatfield

Over the past two weeks, Birrahlee students have been enthusiastically practicing for their upcoming athletics events with Mr Hatfield. Last week, the focus was on high jump. Students learned to identify whether to jump off their left or right foot and which side of the bar to approach. The exercise involved jumping off one foot, reaching up to grab some imaginary money, and landing safely on the mat with two feet. Although challenging, students showed great persistence and many discovered they are natural jumpers!

This week, the students moved on to sprint run practice. They began with warm-up drills and focused on perfecting arm movements—keeping elbows bent and hands coming up—to generate speed. Students were encouraged to keep their eyes straight ahead and concentrate on the finish line.

Looking ahead, the next two weeks will see Birrahlee students practicing shot put and long jump skills. The following week, they will put their new skills to the test at the athletics carnival.

This week in Cooinda, students explored the exciting world of decimal numbers and large numbers through hands-on activities and real-world investigations. Students practised reading, ordering, comparing  and adding decimals while also learning how these numbers are used in everyday life, including money, measurements and statistics.

To connect our learning to the real world, students investigated live population trackers from around the globe. They were fascinated to watch the numbers change in real time and discussed just how large millions and billions really are. Students challenged themselves to read enormous numbers, identify place value and compare the populations of different countries and cities.

In Music, students listened to selections from 'The Four Seasons' by Antonio Vivaldi. Students discussed how the music changed to represent each season and shared their thoughts about the different moods, instruments and sounds they could hear. They then worked collaboratively using untuned percussion instruments to create their own musical pieces inspired by a chosen focus season. Students experimented with rhythm, tempo and dynamics to represent seasonal weather, movement and atmosphere through sound.

This week we also undertook a STEM challenge. Students designed and built marshmallow catapults using a range of classroom materials. They tested different designs, made improvements and explored how movement affected the distance their marshmallows travelled. There was plenty of excitement, teamwork and problem-solving as students experimented with their creations and celebrated successful launches across the classroom.

It has been wonderful to see students engaging thoughtfully across both Mathematics and Music while building their confidence, creativity and curiosity.

We have had another busy and exciting few weeks in our classroom! Students have loved beginning our athletics sessions with Ian Hatfield, where they have been developing their skills and confidence across a range of events. High jump and running have definitely been fantastic so far, with lots of enthusiasm and determination on display. We certainly have some very talented athletes in our class!

In Mathematics, we have been exploring inverse operations and using these strategies to help us solve multi-step word problems. Students have been challenging themselves to think carefully about the operations needed and explain their problem-solving strategies.

In English, we have been learning about the incredible environment of Macquarie Island. Students have been learning about this unique place and using their knowledge to write persuasive texts explaining why we need to protect and save this special ecosystem.

Jamberoo Public School proudly joined millions of children, parents, teachers, and library lovers across Australia and beyond in celebrating National Simultaneous Storytime 2026.

This year’s featured book, Luna Roo: The Kangaroo Baller, written by Adam Jackson and Adrian Lloyd and illustrated by Jake Minton, delighted students with its engaging story, vibrant illustrations, and inspiring message about following your dreams.

At the same time as schools, libraries, childcare centres, and communities around the country, our students gathered to share in the joy of reading and storytelling. National Simultaneous Storytime is a wonderful opportunity to promote literacy, foster a love of books, and connect readers through a shared experience.

Our students thoroughly enjoyed participating in this special event and joining millions of others in celebrating the power of stories to bring people together.

Mrs Green

A friendly reminder that the Premier's Reading Challenge 2026 is now underway! We have already had many students reach their reading goal.

Challenge Opens: Monday 23 February 2026

Challenge Closes: Friday 18 September 2026

Students in Kindergarten to Year 2 complete the challenge as part of their classroom and library learning, with books being recorded at school.

Students in Years 3 to 6 can continue adding books to their reading record at home through their Premier's Reading Challenge student portal, as well as during class and library time at school. Reading 20 books in total.

We encourage all students to keep reading regularly and recording their books to work towards completing the challenge. Reading for enjoyment helps build vocabulary, imagination, knowledge, and a lifelong love of books.

If you have any questions about accessing your child's portal, please contact the school.

Thanks

Mrs Green

Parents and carers, in the Grow Your Mind parent session we learnt a tip about helping your child with anxiety. Your child might feel the same anxiety about a situation, whether it is a threat, an opportunity (e.g. a chance to speak on stage at assembly) or a challenge (e.g. you've been invited to go to the district sports carnival). We might feel the same anxious feeling, even though the second two are actually "safe scary" things. You can help your child think about what it is that is making them feel worried and identify whether it is actually a threat to their safety, or if alternatively, it is a challenge or an opportunity. See the slides below for more on this.