Narrabri West Public School

Narrabri West votes - 2024 school leaders election!

Our Year 5 students will be given the opportunity (in a secret ballot) to nominate students who they think would be suitable candidates for captain or prefects. The boys and girls who receive the most nominations will be invited to stand for election. This process allows those children who their peers believe are best suited to these important positions to have the opportunity to be elected.

All students in Years 2-6 vote, as do all staff members. All votes are equal and the students elected are the four boys and four girls with the most votes. The two with the highest number of votes are elected captains. A simple and fair process, so good luck everyone.

Elections will be held on Thursday 30th November where all candidates will be able to speak about their personal qualities to the rest of the school. No matter the result, we know that Narrabri West will have outstanding school leaders yet again in 2024.

We are now about to enter the 7th week of Term 4 and the year is disappearing quickly with school life starting to get very hectic. There are lots of great things to look forward to as we enter the busiest time of the year. We only have 19 days of school remaining this year!

2024 is not that far way in terms of weeks at school, so already we are working on planning and organisation for next year. We are now finalising planning for our 2024 class structure. We have some very exciting plans in place for next year and look forward to being able to work with all students in a wonderful learning environment.One of the things we need to know is the number of students we can expect to have returning to our school next year.

Parents are asked to help in a number of ways. Firstly, if you know that you will be moving or enrolling in another school next year, it would assist us if you could advise the school as soon as possible.

Similarly, if you plan to have an extended holiday and will be returning to school later than 8th February, it is very important for you to write advising of your return date, as we are not allowed to include students in our numbers for 2024 unless we have written notification from parents indicating that they will be returning and when this will be.

A note will be sent home soon that can be used to provide this information to us.

This annual event will be held on Thursday 7th December, arriving at 6.15pm for a 6.30pm start at The Crossing Theatre Narrabri. We hope you can join us to celebrate the many successes and achievements of not only those students who will receive awards but the achievements of all students who have worked so wonderfully hard to ensure 2023 was another highly successful year.

On the night all students are to wear their full summer uniform (not the sports uniform).

We are preparing to farewell our Year 6 students who will soon embark on the next stage of their learning journey, as they prepare for Year 7 in 2024. They are eagerly awaiting their upcoming orientation visit to Narrabri High School on Wednesday 29th November.

Thank you to all parents for your continuing support for our school. These next few weeks will be extremely busy, but as always will be lots of fun and certainly exciting!

The children are working hard to finish their years’ work. The teachers are finalising their assessments and are finishing writing student reports. There are exciting things happening each day. Coming up in December:

• Presentation Night Thursday 7th December
• Award Assembly Thursday 14th December
•  … and our end of term celebration and last day of school Friday 15th.

We will all definitely need a well-earned rest after all of these activities!

While the school year finishes for students on Friday 15th December, our staff will be in attendance until Tuesday 19th. Monday and Tuesday will be very busy and highly valuable days of planning and professional learning.

As we near the end of the year, I want to thank you for your ongoing support and confirm that the last day of Term 4 classes will be Friday 15 December 2023. This is due to an additional school development day announced for staff across NSW public schools. School development days allow our staff to participate in professional learning and plan ahead for 2024 to ensure we meet the needs of our students. We ask that you arrange alternative care for your child from Monday 18 December. You can find local vacation care services for your child via the Before and After Care School Finder.

The NSW Department of Education is introducing a revised Student Behaviour Policy and new Suspension and Expulsion Procedures, from Term 1, 2024.

The policy and procedures support an inclusive and safe learning environment for your child, staff and every child in NSW public schools.

With the revisions to the policy, we now have clarity and consistency of how we manage disruptive and challenging student behaviour in the classroom, so our teachers can teach, and our students can learn.

The guidelines allow us to work closer together with you to support your child to behave positively and respectfully and when developing individual plans with clear expectations, so they can achieve their best.

We have many practices in place to help our students engage respectfully with each other and their learning. You can find out more about these and advice and support strategies to help you work with their us to achieve positive outcomes for your child through the department’s Behaviour Support Toolkit.

Violence in our schools is never acceptable. Suspension is a critical safeguard for ensuring the safety of our students, teachers and staff.

You can read a preview of the policy and procedures on the department website.

The staff and I are reviewing our current approach in line with the revised policy and procedures and will share any changes we believe need to be made with you from Term 1 2024.

Parents and carers play an important role in the school community. We will continue to engage and communicate with you around our School Behaviour Support and Management Plan that outlines our school processes and practices moving forward.

Our school already takes a strong, positive, student-centred approach, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with you and all our families to maintaining a safe learning environment so our students can thrive.

If you have any questions about the revised policy and procedures, please contact me.

Our very keen 2024 Kindergarten students are well and truly ready for Kindergarten, following the conclusion of our ‘Ready, Set, Kinder’ transition program.

This was a successful experience that has prepared all of them for the start of their learning journey. We enjoyed their company and watching them develop. It was very reassuring to hear them all saying they want to come to school now!

They all received a folder of the work they completed during ‘Ready, Set, Kinder!’. They were extremely proud of this and were very excited as they showed their work. There is no doubt they are ready for their first day of school in 2024. We are really looking forward to welcoming these wonderful new ‘westies’ to our school next year.

Stage 1 students are delving into the fascinating world of coding with enthusiasm and creativity. Using Code.org, the students are developing essential 21st-century skills. As part of the program, students are not only developing their coding skills but also enhancing their logical reasoning and mathematical abilities by discovering the connection between mathematics and coding, paving the way for a bright future filled with technological opportunities. 

WOW!  We have some incredible mathematicians in Year 1. We started Term 4 by investigating data displays where we created the ideal playground based on the votes collected from Narrabri West students. We then began to explore the relationship between 2D shapes and 3D objects. In this unit we turned off the lights to create shape shadows and the students even built their own rectangular prism cities. We will continue to build our mathematics knowledge in the next few weeks by investigating repeating, growing, and shrinking patterns.  

Year 2 have had a busy start to term 4, learning all about fractions, chance and data. In their exploration of fractions, students are not only learning to identify and compare fractions but also applying this knowledge to solve real-world problems, developing valuable problem-solving skills. Chance and data analysis have been introduced through engaging activities, encouraging students to make predictions and analyse data, further building their statistical thinking abilities. 

In English this term our focus has been visual literacy and persuasive texts. Students have explored the mood that can be created by images and they also learnt that a book with only pictures can still be a book that conveys meaning. The students have planned, received feedback, edited and recrafted an advertisement for vegetables or fruit using colour, alliteration and creativity to persuade their audience.  The students are continuing to learn how to write persuasive texts by including a range of persuasive devices.

 In History we have been comparing the past and the present. We have investigated historical events and local sites. We enjoyed going to the old school room to learn about how school used to be in the past. Mrs Hatton brought along some artefacts from the past some of which include, and old cream can, old steel irons and an old cow bell. The children have been very engaged in the discussions and learning about our history.

This term in Science students in Stage 1 have been investigating the changes that occur in the sky and on land. The budding astronomers have observed the changes that happen from day to night and even created their own constellations using toothpicks and marshmallows (some of which we got to eat afterwards!). We will continue our investigations by observing and recording weather changes and we will collaboratively design and produce a rain gauge – something that might be difficult to test with the upcoming dry weather!   

Creative Arts lessons have been lots of fun with students learning a variety of dance moves including Bush dance, Aboriginal dance and Indonesian dance. They are also exploring how to convey mood through dance and movement sequences.

Stage one have had a blast this term learning about nutrition, water and sun safety. The students  have compared safe and unsafe activities around water, created short skits around 'Do the 5 stay alive'!. They used their knowledge of water safety to create signs to keep us safe while at the beach. Students learnt how to be safe in the sun while learning from Sun Safe Sid !  Students are even going around reminding each other how to be sun safe when outside on the playground. The students have created a slogan for a T-shirt to help Sid convince people to stay safe in the sun.  

Since this is the final newsletter for Stage One we would like to thank all the parents and families for their support of this wonderful group of students. We have thoroughly enjoyed helping them learn throughout 2023.

Emily Ward, Jessica Jolley, Hannah Graham, Beth Kracht and Cathy Hatton.

Year 3 and Year 4 have been busy learning and applying their learning, knowledge and skills! Students have enjoyed having their grandparents, great grandparents and special friends visit our classrooms, sharing their quality work.

In English, students have been reading ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl. We have followed a progressive unit of work where students analysed how indirect and direct speech is used within the book. Now, we are taking a closer look at the characters and their traits. The students are writing detailed character descriptions about their selected character.

Next, Stage 2 will use their skills learnt about persuasive techniques to write a speech about why they deserve to own the chocolate factory. I’m sure this will prove to be entertaining! Finally, the students will write a concrete poem titled, ‘Down the Chocolate River’. The students will include similes and personification in their poem to describe what is happening on that exciting boat ride down the river!

In Mathematics, students have represented, modelled, and compared commonly used fractions and decimals, on number lines and objects in everyday life.  Students are also learning about 3D objects. They have deconstructed nets, created models, and sketched a variety of objects, describing and comparing their similarities and differences.

Daily Number Sense has been an exciting time for Stage 2 where they revised their thinking, questioning how their peers have solved number sentences and justifying their answers using appropriate terminology. It has been a great time for students to collaborate and learn different strategies to solve the same equation.

In History, students have been investigating the Stories of the First Fleet. We began in 18th Century Britain and investigated what life was like then. Students gained an understanding of the variety of crimes committed which led to the convicts being placed on one of the 11 ships of the First Fleet under the command of Governor Arthur Phillip.

Our Science unit is titled ‘Under our feet’. Stage Two have been eager to share their knowledge of layers and features of rocks, as well as ways the Earth’s surface is changing over time.

Fridays have been a highlight of our week with students participating in the survival skills swimming program at the Narrabri Aquatic Centre. Then in PE we are learning skills associated with softball, baseball, cricket and volleyball.

During dance lessons, students have performed Australian Bush dances, including the ‘heel-and-toe polka’ and ‘mirror dancing’. They are learning how to tell a story through dance.

The end of term is approaching and the students are busy rehearsing for presentation night. We cannot wait to show you our item from the musical ‘Mamma Mia’

Mrs Keys, Miss Dunmall, Mrs Phillips, Miss Farrelly, Mr Paull and Mrs Pursche.

Congratulations to everyone who received an Award at our Award Assembly.

We celebrated Grandparents Day with a family picnic in the school grounds. It was lovely to see so many Grandparents and Great Grandparents in our school. After our picnic, all our guests were invited into the classrooms to see all the quality work the children have been doing and participated in some games and math challenges.

Mrs Whan ran the Mad Food Science Incursion for our Year 6 students. Year 6 learnt about how to look after their bodies regarding healthier food choices, how to analyse and be critical thinkers regarding food labels and what the rainbow of fruits and vegetables do to promote a healthy body and mind.

Enrolments for 2024 are progressing very well and thank you to all those people who have already indicated their children will be attending Narrabri West next year.

Please encourage anyone you know who has children commencing school in 2024 to advise the school so that we can accurately commence planning. Students attending local preschools should have received packages promoting our school, highlighting our achievements and inviting them to consider Narrabri West. If your child attends another preschool and you have not received an information pack, please ask them for it, as we have supplied these to all Preschools in Narrabri for distribution.

As usual at this time of year, we take a number of measures to ensure your children remain as cool as possible and healthy at school in the hot weather. These include:

• Water bottles – please ensure all children come to school with a full water bottle, (or even more than one) e.g. one could be frozen which could then be used later in the day.
• School fridge – remember we have the large school fridge available to store lunches in so they are nice and cold at lunch time.
• Sport/PE – we will closely monitor the weather and also our sport and PE plans to ensure children are not outside in the heat of the day, or we will make other arrangements if it is too hot to be outside.
• Hats – as always we will enforce our ‘no hat no play’ policy for the safety of the children.
• Afternoon activities – we find in really hot weather that the children, especially our younger ones, often struggle in the afternoon session as fatigue and the heat start to take their toll. With this in mind,  teachers will carefully select afternoon activities that take the weather conditions and how the children are coping into account.

A friendly reminder to please provide a reason for your child’s absence the day of their absence or upon their return.

The easiest method for explaining absences is to use the Audiri app by selecting eForms then submit an absentee form.

Audiri replaces paper/pen and can be easily accessed at any time. If you haven’t already downloaded the app, search for the free Audiri app in the Apple App or Google Play Store.

Thank you to everyone who sends in Audiri notifications or emails informing us of your child/ren’s absences as they occur. 

If your child is sick for 3 consecutive days, you are required to provide the school with a medical certificate. 

Parents/carers are required by law to provide an explanation to the school to say why their child was absent from school. A note of explanation should contain:

1.     Date that the note was written

2.     Child’s name

3.     Days/dates the child was absent from school

4.     The reason the child was absent

5.     The signature of the child’s parent/carer

Or complete the online absence note on our Audiri app.

If you notify the school of an absence on one day, we cannot assume the same reason for being absent on consecutive days.

If more than one child from the same family has been absent, a separate note for each child should be written.

A note should be brought to school or a Audiri notification update, on the first day the student returns to school after an absence. If not, we are required to investigate all unexplained absences (where a child has been absent and no explanation has been received) within two days.

Notifying the school of absences through the Audiri app, by phone, email or note are all acceptable and appreciate.