Newsletter

Kindergarten 2025

Now is the time to enrol for Kindergarten in 2025. Mrs Moutzouris and Miss Pip are currently planning our transition to school events. Please ensure you have visited our school website or office to complete enrolment for students due to start school in 2025. 

We are calling for volunteers to help distribute some flyers promoting our school for Kindergarten 2025. If you are available to help deliver flyers to letterboxes in your street, please come to the school office to collect a bundle. 

Police Youth Liaison Officer visits

During Week 2 we welcomed our Police Youth Liaison Officer to our school to conduct a very informative safety talk for our Stage 3 class. Constable Matt will be back at our school next week to join us for some yummy treats at the Father's Day Breakfast and to visit our Stage 2 class for another important safety talk. Please take the time to say hello.

KYDS Mental Health and Transition to High School Workshop

On the 5th September we will be hosting a mental health and transition to high school workshop for our students in the 5/6 Emus. They will be a hands-on, informative and fun workshop in which students will explore their assumptions about high school and learn evidence-based principles to improve their mental health leaving them more capable, confident and optimistic about high school and life. There will be no cost to families for this workshop. 

Student Behaviour

This term we continue our focus on explicit teaching of student behaviour expectations at school. We have focussed on the following areas:

• Treat others the way you want to be treated
• Listen respectfully
• Follow teacher directions
• Be polite to others

It is impressive to see improvement in these areas across the school, leading to a happier, more harmonious school for all. 

Mrs Erin Dooley

Principal (Rel)

Father’s Day is just around the corner. To celebrate we will be having a Father’s Day Breakfast & Stall on Thursday 29th August 2024. 

Father's Day Breakfast

Dads, grandpas & carers are invited to join us for a special Father’s Day Breakfast at 8:30am outside the school canteen.

There will be lots of yummy treats to share. All welcome!

Father's Day Stall

The P&C will be hosting a Father’s Day Stall. Students will then have the opportunity to visit the stall during class time with their teacher. There are a range of items available for purchase.

Please ensure that you place any money for your child/ren in a sealed envelope or bag with their name on it. 

All parents want their child to do well in school. One way to help your child is to help them build their vocabulary. Beginning readers use knowledge about words to help them make sense of what they’re reading. The more words a reader knows, the more they are able to comprehend what they’re reading or listening to.

Talking to and reading with your child are two terrific ways to help them hear and read new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words (“The book says, ‘The boy tumbled down the hill,’ and look at the picture! How do you think he went down the hill?”) are easy, non-threatening ways to get new words into everyday talk.

Sharing a new word with your child doesn’t have to take a long time: just a few minutes to talk about the word and then focus back on the book or conversation. Choose which words to talk about carefully — choosing every new word might make reading seem like a chore. The best words to explore with your child are ones that are common among adult speakers but are less common to see in the books your child might read.

When introducing new words to your young learner, keep the following four helpful hints in mind:

Enormous means that something is really, really big.

Remember that really big watermelon we got at the grocery store? That was an enormous watermelon!

What enormous thing can you think of? Can you think of something really big that you saw today? That’s right! The bulldozer near the park was enormous! Those tires were huge.

Over the next few days and weeks, take advantage of opportunities to use each new vocabulary word in conversation.

Take the time to share new words and build your child’s vocabulary. You’ll be enormously glad you did!

On August 6, Curtis Oval came alive with energy and excitement as students, teachers, and families gathered for the much-anticipated Athletics Carnival. The day was a resounding success, filled with thrilling races and fun novelty events showcasing the incredible talent and determination of our athletes.

From the youngest participants to the senior students, everyone displayed outstanding sportsmanship, cheering on their peers and celebrating each other’s achievements. The friendly competition brought out the best in everyone, with smiles and high-fives shared across the field.

In addition, the P&C Association treated many with delicious cheeseburger meal deals. The mouth-watering burgers and treats were a hit, providing the perfect fuel for competitors.

All students showed sensible behaviour throughout the day, making it a safe and enjoyable day for all. Thank you everyone who contributed to the success of the day and look forward to doing it all again next year!

On Thursday 15 th August the school came alive with all the fun of Book Week. The theme for the day was ‘Reading is Magical’. Students were dressed as their favourite book character and the teachers were all dressed in Harry Potter costumes. The teachers performed fun spells on the students and then all classes had the opportunity to show off their costumes. We then had a lovely morning tea together with yummy muffins and family fun time.

The book fair was also a great success with many families stocking up on books for their home library.

It was a magical, fun day enjoyed by all!!

Mrs Ramsey

Teacher Librarian 

Book Club Issue 6 - Due: 13 September 2024

There are now 2 easy ways to pay: CREDIT CARD (LOOP) or CREDIT VOUCHER.

Cash payments will no longer be available.

PAYING BY CREDIT CARD

1.    Simply grab your child’s Book Club catalogue and either sign in or register your account on scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download the LOOP app.

2.    Click on ORDER and then select your school and your child’s class.

3.    Add your child’s first name & last initial (so the school knows who the book is for)

4.    Enter the item number from the Book Club catalogue.

5.    All orders are sent directly to the school for submission to Scholastic. Books will still be delivered to your child’s classroom if you order by the close date.

6.    Afterwards, there’s no need to return paper order forms or payment receipt details back to your school!

PAYING BY CREDIT VOUCHER

If paying with a credit voucher, please enter details on LOOP when placing your order online.

All purchases made help the school earn REWARD POINTS which allows us to purchase new resources for the library. 

Year 4 has been busy watering and observing their mushrooms growing since week 2. On Tuesday they harvested a bumper crop and today, Thursday, made pizza and tried their home-grown mushrooms! Everyone had a taste and gave the pizzas a 10/10 score. Best recess ever!

The weather on our Education Week Open Day was rainy and miserable which meant we weren’t able to go to the garden, but that didn’t stop us from having an open classroom in the hall. Parents, carers and their children were able to plant a sunflower or corn seed, look at some native bush food plants and learn about life cycle of some animals, including the silk worm. We had lots of fun in the hall!

Mrs Andonenas

Teacher

Recently Year 1 Quokkas have taken a keen interest in the brush turkey that’s been busy building its mound in the school playground. We have been quietly observing the turkey’s progress and efforts and recording its results.

On day one at 9am we recorded the brush turkey was 12 metres from the mound. By 3pm the same day he had managed to move the mulch along 22 metres. That was impressive! At the end of day 2 he had moved the mulch the entire 33 metres to the small mound under the tree.  Heading into the second week the brush turkey is continuing to work hard, consistently scratching the mulch down the slope to his mound. The mound is progressively getting bigger and bigger each day.  He will continue to do this until he is satisfied that the mound nest is ready for the eggs to be laid.

Inspired by the brush turkey’s industrious efforts, students drew and labelled detailed pictures of the bird, capturing its unique features and its impressive mound construction.

Along side their artwork, as a class we conducted research on the brush turkey, learning about its habits, habitat, and the fascinating process of mound-building. This hands-on experience has brought the children’s studies to life, turning our playground into a living classroom where nature sparks curiosity and creativity. 

COLLECTING STUDENTS FROM SCHOOL

A reminder that if you have made arrangements for someone to collect your child/ren that is outside of your normal arrangements, please ensure that you have notified the office so we are aware and can let other staff members know in a timely manner.  This applies to leaving early and for the end of the day. 

SAFETY

A reminder to all students and parents that entry to the School is via the Pedestrian gate on Chestnut Ave located near Block D. This is for everyone's safety. If you require disabled access there are two entry points into the school via the ramp into the school office and via the gate on the corner of Sturt and Manson Streets. 

NOTES SENT HOME

On occasion important notes will be sent home. Please ensure you remember to check your child's bag each day.

CELEBRATIONS

Here at TPS we enjoy celebrating student’s birthdays. You are most welcome to bring in something to celebrate but we ask that individual store bought small bite size cupcakes or individually wrapped sweets are brought in to school as this makes it easier for the students to eat. A large cake makes it difficult to distribute to their classmates. 

LOST PROPERTY

There are a number of items in the Lost Property box which do not have names on them. If your child is missing an item, please check this box which is located in the D Block breezeway.

CONTACT INFORMATION OR CIRCUMSTANCE CHANGE

Please ensure that your contact details are up to date. It is important that the School be able to contact you in case of your child being ill, a child not being collected from school or in case of emergency etc. If your family circumstances change, please also provide the school with any updated documentation. 

You can notify the school of any changes or updates via written confirmation or complete the template form located in the office foyer. 

MOBILE PHONES OR DEVICES

If you require your child to carry a mobile phone/device, you will be required to complete a permission note (please see the school office if you require this note). Student mobile phones/device are to be turned off and handed to the school office during school hours in the morning. Mobile phones/devices will be returned to the students at the end of each day. 

The P&C enjoyed helping out at the recent Athletic's Carnival making 100 lunches for our budding athletes.

Thank you to Reanna Haley for assisting the executive team with organising the event and cleaning up on the day.

It's a busy time at the P&C with the father's day stall and an election BBQ fundraiser coming up and our first ever AGM on the 25th of September at 6:30pm.

At our AGM we will elect our new office bearers and renew membership. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring along a gold coin and join the P&C! You can still be a member if you cannot attend all our meetings, to find out more speak to a member of the Executive.

Volunteers needed:

There are so many ways to get involved with the P&C, help fundraise for the school and get to know other parents at the same time. Consider how you might be able to assist with the following:

Father's Day Stall - Thursday 29 and Friday 30 August

We would love 1 or 2 volunteers to help out running the father's day stall each day. You don't have to be available to help for the whole day, but if you have an hour or two to spare we would love to hear from you!

Saturday 14 September - Election BBQ and Cake Stall

Whether you are a BBQ King, a Baking Queen or a novice there is something everyone can do to help with our upcoming Election Day fundraiser. If you can spare an hour or two we need people to assist with running the BBQ and Cake stall.  You might volunteer to BBQ a few sausages, sell some cold drinks or lolly bags or tempt passers by with some delicious baked goods.

Not able to help out on the day?

Perhaps you could assist by baking or donating store bought goods for our cake stall?

Saturday 30 November - Rydalmere Bunnings BBQ

The BBQ tongs will be busy once again at our first ever Bunnings BBQ. We need volunteers to help BBQ, handle payments and serve customers. We would also love people to help with the planning for this event.

If you are able to help with any of these events please email us at telopeapspandc@gmail.com or leave a message with the Office for a member of the Executive to contact you by phone.

Warm regards

Telopea P&C

The Supported Playgroup at Telopea SaCC is an initiative to support parents and carers with children up to five years.

The sessions are play based and support children in the early childhood stage. All activities including early literacy and numeracy concepts are presented in such a way that encourages engagement and combined with parent and carer active involvement support development for a lifelong love of learning. 

Massive growth is observed in all the development areas in the early childhood years (birth to five years) 

• Cognitive development
• Social and emotional development
• Speech and language development
• Gross motor (big muscle development)
• Fine motor (small muscle development)

During playgroup we may observe behaviours in children that adults understand is not ideal. For example, pushing, biting, hitting, not sharing, unable to follow instruction and not yet able to wait their turn. But by children exhibiting these behaviours we're provided the opportunity to teach and guide for more suitable outcomes as the child moves through the various stages of development. And on the flip side we can support children to manage their emotions when faced with a less-than-ideal situation. Playgroup is the perfect time to practice these new skills leading into a child starting school. 

I would like to stress that every child, birth to five years, especially siblings of TPS students are welcome to join Telopea SaCC playgroup regardless of their developmental stage. The following link provides information on early childhood development.

Early childhood development | NSW Government

I encourage you to contact me should you have any questions regarding SaCC initiatives.

Pip

Phillipa (Pip) Martins

Facilitator

Telopea 'Schools as Community Centres' (SaCC) Project

C/- Telopea Public School

Chestnut Ave

Telopea NSW 2117

Ph: (02)9898 3448

email: phillipa.martins@det.nsw.edu.au