Dudley Public School Newsletter

It is with great positivity and pride that we are wrapping up 2023 with a reflection on the year that was. We have experienced many achievements this year as a school and also as individuals. From the classroom to the sporting arena and from the community space to the performing arts stage, we are celebrating many successes and accomplishments this year. A huge shout out to everyone within the school community who has contributed to 2023 being such a wonderful year for our students. We have taken on so many projects that have created opportunities for students to excel and shine in a variety of areas.

Sincere thanks goes to the teaching and non-teaching staff who work tirelessly to ensure no opportunity passes our students by. The staff put in so much time and dedication to the school to provide the students with the very best educational experiences on offer. Our school is such a fabulous place because of these dedicated and professional individuals who show compassion everyday they show up.

Many thanks to our Dudley Public School families for your ongoing support throughout the year. We appreciate working in partnership with you and look forward to a bright and prosperous 2024. I would like to extend best wishes to those families who will be leaving Dudley Public School at the end of 2023. Thanks for being part of the Dudley Tapestry for the past few years.

As the end of the year approaches quickly I would like to share the following information with parents and carers regarding some of the major events remaining on the school calendar. This information was circulated last week on Audiri.

The Dudley Public School Presentation Day is a chance for the school community to celebrate the achievements of students throughout the 2023 school year. This formal assembly will begin promptly at 9:30am. Class awards, special performances, major school awards and the announcement of the 2024 student leaders will be included in the program. All parents and friends of the school are welcome to attend. Students who have been successful in receiving an award have had an SMS sent to parents requesting parent attendance to recognise their child’s achievement on the day.

This celebration is in recognition of the special milestone for our youngest Dudley Public Students of reaching the end of the first year of schooling. The assembly will run for an hour with a chance for photographs afterwards outside the school hall. The assembly will feature each student being presented with their first year of school certificate presented by their Year 6 Buddy. It will also feature a special message from the Principal, teachers and Kindergarten students themselves, as well as a special performance. Parents and friends of Kindergarten are welcome to join us in the school hall for this milestone occasion.

This emotional rite of passage is a tradition that is incredibly special as we close the end of the school year. A final farewell to students leaving Dudley Public School in 2023 will involve the students and staff forming a human walkway and giving a round of applause to the leaving students as they make their way from the school buildings down to the basketball court. Parents and friends are welcome to attend this event and share in saying a special goodbye to the students leaving our wonderful school.

All students will be involved in their class parties as the classes come together with their teachers to celebrate the end of a successful year. Permission notes have already been shared with families regarding the end of year activities that each class will be participating in on the Friday. These events will be followed by class parties which will flow into the lunch break. All students are invited wear party clothes/out of uniform on the day. Clothing should be appropriate for school with closed in shoes and covered shoulders with their normal school hat.

Our students are certainly a group of incredibly talented individuals. We saw this exemplified at the end of last term in our school musical production of SKYHIGH. Ms Wild has run auditions for the Talent Show which will be held in the school hall. Students who were successful in the auditions will feature their performances in this special showcase. We welcome family and friends to come along and share in this wonderful end-of-year celebration.

As a final farewell to our 2023 Year 6 students, we will host a special dinner, dance, and ceremony on the last school night of the year. Year 6 students will attend the photo session starting at 5:30pm until 6:00pm. From 6pm the Year 6 students will be joined by Year 5 peers for the sit-down dinner. The students will then engage in a disco hosted by DJ Algorithm followed by a formal presentation of graduation certificates and speeches which all Year 6 parents and friends are warmly invited to attend starting from 8:10pm. The night will conclude at approximately 8:45pm. Year 5 students can be picked up at 8:00pm, however are welcome to stay for the formal presentation section and be picked up by their parents at the conclusion of the night at 8:45pm.

It is with great excitement that we enter the 2024 school year with the major works taking place in our school playground after many years of assessment, monitoring and design. We are looking forward to this time next year when we can enjoy the newly created space and say goodbye to temporary fencing in our playground. Of course, the works won’t be without challenge and frustration, but by teaming together and working in partnership we will be able to deal with the short-term pain for the long-term gain.

From the beginning of next year our central point of communication with families will be through School Bytes. We have been very happy with this platform servicing our finance and permission notes services and look forward to introducing the other modules at the beginning of 2024. You can already access next years calendar dates on School Bytes. Sentral Parent Portal and Audiri/Skoolbag will be retired at the end of this term.

Many thanks to everyone involved in last nights event. It was wonderful to see families together sharing in the festive spirit and supporting the students of the school during their performances. Mr Horadam did a great job in pulling the evening together, even with securing Santa to make a special visit as this very busy time of year.

On behalf of the staff, I would like to extend warm wishes of joy, peace, safety and positivity over the festive period. We wish all our Dudley Families the very best over the summer break and look forward to greeting those returning in 2024 at the beginning of February next year. Stay safe and Seasons Greetings.

Kind Regards,

Chad Tsakissiris

Proud Principal

Friday 8 December	Kinder Graduation 9.30am
Monday 11 December	Presentation Day 9.30am
Tuesday 12 December	Talent Quest 11.30am
Thursday 14 December	Year 6 Farewell photos from 5.30pm - 6:00pm (Yr 6 only) Year 5 & 6 Farewell celebrations from 6:00pm
Friday 15 December	Students last day! K-2 End of year celebration Stage 2 & 3 End of year celebration Year 6 Clap out 2.50pm

Congratulations Dudley Public School on a sensational PRC this year. In total we had 216 students completing the challenge. Of this, we awarded 40 gold certificates in recognition of completing the challenge 4 times. We also awarded 11 platinum certificates! This is a great achievement for these students who have completed the PRC 7 times, every year of their primary school career. Well done to every student who participated and completed the PRC for 2023. *missing from photo: Madeline, Oscar, David. 

Last Friday at assembly, we were thrilled to broadcast our recent ABC Radio interview piece with Sahara, Beau and Charlie. We were incredibly proud of how well our three Garbage Guardians spoke and represented our school with enthusiasm and pride. The interview can be listened to in full via the follow link:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VqknXJ3B5t0RV7jlpiOexGf3mBerzjmG/view?usp=sharing

A huge thank you to our wonderful team of Year 5 Garbage Guardians in 2023. Charlotte, Helena, Healey, Lexi, Sahara, Georgia, Pepper, Holly, Jaala, Abel, Beau, Oliver, Ashton, Rhys, Charlie and Noppi have gone above and beyond to ensure that our garbage pods have operated effectively every recess and lunch time. As a school, we have been able to recycle more rubbish this year and minimise our footprint because of these outstanding environmental leaders. Thank you!

We have been enjoying the revamped look of our garden with the installation of the beautiful sculpture. This was the final piece of the P and C project to create the eco sense garden. The artist, Alex Scheibner has carefully crafted this sculpture for our school in mind. His artist statement about the piece is attached in the pictures. It seems particularly poignant this time of year as Year 6 move onto new adventures and our new kindergartners begin their school journeys. 

Artist's statement: Flowers are a language that speak to everyone. Here we see a pair of easily recognisable garden flavorists in the form of the Daisy and the poppy. The daisy is loved by children the world over, either made into chains, tucked behind the ear or made into crowns. It is the shape most commonly drawn in childhood drawings and represented in fairy tales and childhood characters. The flowers support a central flower that is a copper lined bird bath. Over time the copper will age gracefully to a warm patina. The water provided will give birds a place to drink and wash in safety. The poppy is recognised as the flower of service and remembrance. Here, the poppy is formed in rusty iron to show the aging of memory. For visual interest a small brass caterpillar is placed in the flower, seen to be eating little holes. Perhaps it is feeding on history and remembrance to one day transform into a beautiful butterfly, just like the children who attend Dudley Public School and view the sculpture. With the feeding of knowledge and happy experiences from their time at school they will become beautifully formed adults.

 

At the moment, you can smell our delicious garden a long time before you reach it. The mint bush is really happy with life right now. We've been doing some basic maintenance in garden group, collecting casuarina leaves, weeding and watering. We have noticed there are so many flowering plants dying back now the weather is warmer and we've had a flurry collecting seeds. These will be used to plant some new plants next year. We've also spotted our sugar bag bees buzzing from plant to plant and all around the school. If anyone in the school community has time to pop over and do a bit of watering through the holidays, please let the office know and we'll organise a tap key for you. As the last day of garden club approaches this year, we'd like to say a huge thank you to all the wonderful students who come along and spend Wednesdays with us in the garden. It's one of our favourite times each week. Thank you to families and P and C for your ongoing support and a huge thank you to our outgoing environment leaders, Piper and Harry, for everything they have done this year. It's been amazing to have you all on our team.Happy gardening everyone. See you in 2024! Mrs Mullins and Mrs Adams

Stock up on delicious wine for the festive season. Orders can be delivered anywhere in Australia so please share with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours etc., and help us to raise valuable funds for our school! The P&C will receive $50 for every 12 bottles sold across all orders. Let us know if you need a copy of the order form: dudley.fundraising@gmail.com

Please arrange to collect your mango trays on Wednesday 13th December. More details will go out via Audri on the day.

It’s not your regular bingo and you won’t want to miss it! Stay tuned for more info. Tickets will be on sale in early Term 1.

It’s been another big year of fundraising and together we’ve raised over $25k which will go towards future student resources and facilities at Dudley PS! It just wouldn’t be possible without your support and the help of our committed P&C parents, volunteers, teachers and staff. So, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has encouraged us, helped out or participated in our fundraising events this year.

General business: dudleyschoolpandc@gmail.com

Canteen: dudley.canteen@gmail.com

Uniform shop: dudley.uniformshop@gmail.com

Fundraising: dudley.fundraising@gmail.com

P&C Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DudleyPandC

Find out what’s happening at the school and within the P&C by coming along to a meeting. You don’t need to be a member to attend and there’s no obligation to volunteer for anything!

Meetings are Monday of weeks 3 and 7 of each term at 7pm in the library and via zoom.

To become a member of the P&C, simply bring $2 to a meeting or transfer $2 to the account below and email dudleyschoolpandc@gmail.com to advise of payment and provide contact details.

Name: Dudley P&C

BSB: 032-513

ACC: 338 433

Ref: First and Last Name.