Dear JPS Families,

What a lovely Week 2 it has been! Our Southern Stars students had a fantastic experience at their first mass rehearsal at WIN Entertainment Centre this week — an exciting preview of the grandeur of the performances for those students (and teachers) involved. And in what turned out to be surprisingly stiff competition for the most exciting event of the week, many of our students were absolutely thrilled by a visit from the dental van, going home well-equipped with some new dental hygiene products!

Next week we will be celebrating Public Education Week, with this year's theme being Inspiring Excellence. We are very much looking forward to welcoming families into our classrooms on Friday, and we hope you'll stay afterwards to join us for a picnic and some fun in the playground. It's a wonderful chance to see your children in their learning environment and celebrate everything that makes public education so special.

Also coming up next week — the long-awaited Pyjama Day on Tuesday in support of our Year 6 fundraiser. With the weather being just about perfect for it, we encourage everyone to come to school in their cosiest PJs! On Friday, we will also be holding our SRC Bake Sale, raising funds for our fabulous school garden. A big thank you to everyone who is planning on baking and donating a treat to be sold — they will be much appreciated and very much enjoyed by all during our Open Classrooms and picnic celebration.

A thank you to the JPS staff for keeping the ship steady for the latter part of this week, while I was off-site at the Department of Education Head Office in Parramatta attending a principal conference. While I always prefer to be here at school, it is important that Jamberoo has a voice in the wider system, and the connections and information gained at these events benefit our school greatly. It was a privilege to hear keynote speeches from the Secretary of the Department of Education, Murat Dizdar, and the Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, Prue Carr.

Finally, best of luck to our competitors at the District Athletics Carnival next Wednesday! Thank you to Mrs Kunkler for coordinating the event for our whole district, and to Ian Hatfield for coming in this week to give our competitors some extra pre-carnival training. We will be cheering you on! A special good luck also to Arthur and Kiara, who are competing in the final of the Premier's Spelling Bee this week — what a fantastic achievement to reach the final!

Kind Regards, 

Bec Gavin

Principal

Students have been having a fantastic time during lunch, building and creating with our donated LEGO. The generous donation has provided a wonderful opportunity for students to work together, use their imaginations, and develop their problem-solving skills in a fun and relaxed environment. It's been wonderful to see so much creativity, teamwork, and enjoyment as students design and build amazing creations together. A big thank you to everyone who donated the LEGO and helped make this lunchtime activity possible!

Kindergarten has had a fantastic and busy start to Term 3!

The term began with our 100 Days of School celebrations. It was wonderful to see the students dressed up for the occasion, and I would like to say a big thank you to all of our families for the time and effort you put into their costumes. The children had a fantastic day participating in a range of fun activities centred around the number 100.

On Friday, our whole school celebrated NAIDOC Week with a variety of engaging cultural activities. The students enjoyed learning how to weave a bracelet, throwing and decorating boomerangs, and learning some traditional dances. The day concluded with a meaningful smoking ceremony, providing the students with an opportunity to learn about and appreciate Aboriginal culture and traditions.

This term we have also started our Visual Arts unit with a focus on line this week. The students used a variety of lines to draw and paint a beautiful bear artwork. They demonstrated creativity and took great pride in their finished pieces.

I am looking forward to another exciting term filled with lots of learning and fun in Kindergarten!

It has been a busy and wonderful first full week back at school! 

In English, we have started reading our class novel, Wonder. This beautiful story will be explored throughout the entire term, and we are looking forward to the many discussions and learning opportunities it will inspire. To ensure students experience the story as intended and avoid spoilers, we kindly ask that they do not watch the movie until we have finished reading the book together.

In Mathematics, we have finished our unit on capacity. Their enthusiasm and curiosity made for a great end to this unit. We have now begun our new unit on angles. Students have enjoyed exploring different types of angles and learning how to measure them accurately using protractors. This term we are also pushing the focus of quick recall of multiplication facts. Students are becoming engaged in group games focused on multiplication. 

A warm welcome back to all of our wonderful Garden Club volunteers who help our garden run so smoothly. Your time, enthusiasm and support are truly appreciated. We'd also like to extend a very special welcome to our newest volunteer, Carolyn. We're so pleased to have you join our garden community!

Over the past two weeks, our students have been busy preparing for the season ahead by planting the last of our winter crops, including carrots, beetroot and potatoes. We can't wait to watch them grow over the coming weeks.

This week, our K–2 students enjoyed harvesting delicious snow peas straight from the garden. They also helped plant rosemary in the new garden bed beside the chook pen, adding another wonderful edible plant to our growing garden.

This year is flying by and Father's Day is coming up.

Save the date for our Father's Day stall - more information next week.

Thanks!